9-30-07 - DREAM - I've had a lot of complicated dreams, and this
one probably beats them all.

Everyone has at least one rival or enemy in the business of what I
do. Some love my work and some don't. Some think I'm a great prophet and
some think that what I do is 'evil' based on religious grounds.

In that vein, I was writing a web page about 'The Greatest Ship
Collision in Maritime History' because that is what I dreamed. In my
dream I actually experienced the collision in real life as it was
occurring, and then dreamed it like the ship was made of green plastic
(similar to the greenhouse Joe and I are building in our yard) It
seemed so real, that after the dream I woke up and asked Joe if he had
heard an news about a ship explosion somewhere. He hadn't.

While I was working on my web page, I went to my rival's web page to
see what she was talking about. She was talking about me and her
opinion of my work, which was not very nice, but I thought I would make
peace with her because I also dreamed that she and I both moved and ended
up living right across the street from each other.

So, I purchased a large bouquet of roses and took them to her house
which was on the other side of town. My rival, a blonde woman about
the same age as myself or perhaps a few years younger, with short curly
hair, greeted me at the door. She reluctantly took the roses and
looked extremely skeptical at me as I was trying to make peace with her.
I could see why - her boss was there - an older woman than myself - and
she was telling her what to write.

We had held hands for a short time while I was delivering the roses,
but now that her boss was there watching, she dropped my hand and went
back to being completely her nasty self.

My rival said that a book had come out where people were quoted as
to my work and nothing was positive. She said that she was going to
be quoting liberally from that book.

I wanted to tell her about my dream about the ships but was
reluctant at that point. I wanted her to know what was going to happen.
Just as I left, I told her about the ship collision that I had dreamed and
left the building. I was satisfied now that she knew what was going to
happen in the future.

I felt very tired as I walked home because I had not really made
peace with my rival. As I got back to my own office building, I ran
into two people who had injured themselves. Both were wearing grey
gabardine coveralls like workman. One complained he had injured his arm,
and the other complained he had injured his leg. The one who injured
his leg said that he needed new grey pants, but I didn't have access to
any to help him.

So, I continued walking up the stairs to the 4th floor to my office,
where I was working on a map of the United States because the weather was
changing all over the country, and I was putting a coating of light orange
paint all over the map - the kind of paint you could see the color, but
still see the features beneath.

My boss walked in and asked me if that was my original art work, and
I was honest and told him that I hadn't created the map, but was just
coloring it orange like it was going to look in the future. Another
co-worker came up on my left side and pointed out the names of the
original authors of the map work was printed right on the map. I was
running out of orange paint at that point so the western states didn't get
as much orange paint as they deserved.

I really needed to get back and write about the ship collision,
because I wanted to be able to stop it from happening, but knew I couldn't
do that. I didn't know which two ships it was, just that there were so
many people on both ships, that the death toll was the largest of any two
ships colliding - ever.

~~~~

2-26-08 - Last night I had three dream/visions which referred to
ship danger.

The first one showed me a dark blue loose leaf black bound book with
a dark blue cover that said simple: SURVIVAL

The other two showed me a page of dark blue seed beads lined up,
also referring to the danger to ships, and when I attempted to touch the
dark blue seed beads, they turned to a page of dark and dirty seed beads.

I can't say for certain what this means, but it's not good.

Dee

Ship collision

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ship collision is the structural impact between two
ships or one ship and a floating or still object. Ship collisions
are of particular importance marine accidents. Some reasons for
the latter are:

The environmental impact, especially in the case where large
tanker ships are involved. However, even minor spills from any
kind of merchant ship can form a threat to the environment.

The loss of human life.

Financial consequences to local communities close to the
accident.

The financial consequences to ship-owners, due to ship loss
or penalties.

As sea routes are getting denser and ship speeds higher, there
is a good possibility that a ship may experience an important
accident during her lifetime. Higher speeds may cause larger
operational loads, like
slamming, or excessively severe loads, for example during a
collision. Denser sea routes increase the probability of an
accident – in particular a collision – involving ships or ships
and shore or offshore structures. Due to extremely large masses
and relatively high velocities the energy involved in such an
accident is astonishing: the collision energy of a 10000t RoRo
passenger at a speed of 30kn, is equivalent to 10000 cars of
approximately 1t each, impacting a small area with a speed of
approximately 55km/h (the speed used in
Euro NCAP side impact tests for cars).

NKorea allows SKorean ship return
home after probe

The Associated Press

Published: August 13, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea
allowed a South Korean cargo vessel to return home
Wednesday after investigating its crew members over
a ship collision that left two North Koreans dead,
an official said.

North Korea told South Korea in a telephone
call that the cargo ship carrying seven people left
a North Korean port around 3 p.m. (0600 GMT) to
return to the South, said Kim Ho-nyeon, a spokesman
at the South Korean Unification Ministry. South
Korea's Coast Guard said the vessel crossed into
South Korean waters and was sailing toward a
southern port.

Kim said the North also promised to send South
Korea official documents detailing its investigation
into Tuesday's collision between the cargo ship and
a North Korean fishing boat in waters north of the
eastern sea border between the Koreas.

Two North Koreans died after their fishing
boat sank following the wreck. However, its two
other crew members were rescued by the South Korean
vessel that was transporting sand from the North,
according to the Unification Ministry.

The South Korean ship subsequently sailed to
North Korea's Jangjon Port for questioning, the
ministry official said.

Later Wednesday, the North's official media
reported the military sent a separate message
stating the country has decided to take "the
fraternal measure" of sending back the South Korean
ship because the collision was an accident that took
place in the middle of the night.

"This incident took place as the captain of
the South's cargo ship failed to detect our fishing
boat that was in front of his ship, as he was solely
navigating it after letting his tired crew members
sleep," said the message, carried by the Korean
Central News Agency.

A North Korean state-run trading company also
sent a message Wednesday to its South Korean
business partner responsible for excavating the
sand, proposing a meeting between the sides to
resolve the issue, according to the Unification
Ministry. The North's Korea Joining Trading Company
said it would let the South Korean boat return home
under a "humanitarian, fraternal viewpoint,"
it said.

An Hyun-ja, an official at Seoul-based Acheon
Global Co., confirmed her company received an
official message from its North Korean business
partner but did not provide details of the message.

Acheon Global brings North Korean sand to the
South for use in construction projects. South
Korea's Daebul Construction Co. owns the ship.

The collision came amid continuing tensions
between the two nations over the shooting death last
month of a South Korean tourist vacationing at
that resort.

The North has said the tourist was shot
because she entered a restricted military area and
ignored warnings to stop. In response, South Korea
halted tourist visits to the resort, demanding the
North allow investigators into the area.

The two Koreas are still technically in a
state of war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended
with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Ties between the countries have soured since a
pro-U.S., conservative government took office in
February in Seoul with a harder line on the North.

08/04/08

Ship collision, two killed, one missing.

Pekanbaru, Riau, (ANTARA News) - Two passengers
were killed and another one still missing after a
collision between a passenger ship and freighter
in the Malaka waters, in Riau and Riau islands
border region on Sunday.

Head of a navy post in Rokan Hilir, First
Lieutanant Al Mufit, told ANTARA in Pekanbaru that
the accident took place 20 miles from Bagan
Siapi-api, Rokan Hilir regencies on Sunday
afternoon.

The passenger ship, Damai Lestari with 22 people
on board was sailing from Belawan to Karimun while
the freighter is called MT Tancoral. The two dead
people and the missing one were passengers of
Damai Lestari.

"19 Passengers were save and the victims were
evacuated to the Tanjung Balai Karimun naval
base," he said.

"MT Tancoral may have escaped to the direction of
Belawan," he said, adding the identity of the
victims were still unkown.(*)

Only bodies under toppled ferry in Philippines

There were 862 people on board as the
passenger ferry capsized, including "751 manifested passengers
and 111 crew members", the ship company said on Monday, up
from the earlier reported figure of 747. As of now, only 34
have been rescued while most of the others may have died.

By PAUL ALEXANDER –

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Divers wriggled into a capsized
ferry Tuesday and found only bodies — including that of a
crewman still clutching a radio — three days after some 850
people went down with the vessel during a powerful typhoon,
officials said.

Hundreds of people were feared trapped when the ship
suddenly tilted and went belly up Saturday at the height of
the powerful storm that left dozens of people dead in flooded
communities in the central Philippines.

Philippines Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo
indicated it was unlikely there were survivors from the ferry.
He said the ship's interior was too dark to determine how many
bodies were there and lighting was being brought in.

"Most of the bodies were floating inside. They were trapped
when the seven-story ship suddenly tilted and capsized," he
told dzBB radio.

Arevalo said it was possible some passengers could have
survived initially, but the roiling seas from Typhoon Fengshen
had kept rescuers at bay too long and suffocation may have
claimed some lives.

He said some of the bodies had life vests but many
passengers apparently hesitated to jump into the "turbulent
waters" before the ship capsized because "it happened too
sudden." Survivors said the ship listed and went down in a
half-hour or less.

"If there are survivors, they could only be found in the
forward portion, because if the vessel is no longer
watertight, water would enter all its spaces that are
submerged," Arevalo said.

Coast guard chief Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said about 20 coast
guard and navy divers were at the scene and that the U.S. Navy
ship Stockham had arrived with frogmen and search-and-rescue
helicopters.

He said the divers had broken windows and used every other
gap they could find to slip inside the 23,824-ton Princess of
Stars, which has only one end jutting from the water off
Sibuyan island.

Arevalo said the priority now is to extricate the bodies.
He said options include attaching weights to them and then
pulling them out, or cutting the hull — a prospect complicated
by a cargo of bunker oil that could leak and turn the human
disaster into an environmental one.

On Sunday, divers heard no response when they hammered on
the hull, but officials had refused to give up.

Only about three dozen ferry survivors have been found,
including 28 who drifted at sea for more than 24 hours, first
in a life raft, then in life jackets, before they were found
Sunday about 80 miles to the north in eastern Quezon province.

Officials initially reported 747 passengers and crew were
aboard the ferry, but said Monday that it was carrying about
100 more.

Six bodies, including those of a man and woman who had
bound themselves together, have washed ashore, along with
children's slippers and life jackets.

While some relatives tearfully waited for news, others
angrily questioned why the ship was allowed to leave Manila
late Friday for a 20-hour trip to Cebu with a typhoon
approaching.

Sulpicio Lines said it sailed with coast guard approval.
The government ordered the company to suspend services pending
an investigation and a check of its other ships'
seaworthiness.

Debate also began anew on safe-sailing rules in a country
prone to storms — Fengshen was the seventh typhoon this year —
and dependent on ferries to get around the sprawling
archipelago.

While the official national death toll from the typhoon
stood at 117, the worst-hit region reported 227 dead and 275
missing. The figures did not include those aboard the ferry.

Manila (dpa) - Twenty-eight passengers and crew members
of a ferry that sank in stormy seas in the central
Philippines were found alive as rescuers on Monday
continued to search for more than 800 missing people, a
police official said.

Senior Superintendent Fidel Posadas said the 28
survivors reached the shores of Mulanay town in Quezon
province, 150 kilometres south-east of Manila, aboard an
inflatable life raft from the capsized MV Princess of the
Stars.

Posadas said local authorities were coordinating with
Sulpicio Lines, owner of the ill-fated ferry, to turn over
the survivors.

The recovery brought to 32 the number of survivors from
the ferry sinking, with six confirmed killed and more than
800 still missing, according to the Coast Guard and
Sulpicio Lines.

Coast guard and navy rescuers scoured islets and
coastal towns near Sibuyan Island, 300 kilometres south of
Manila, where the Princess of the Stars sank on Saturday,
in hopes of finding more survivors. Additional rescue
ships were also dispatched by the coast guard and the navy
on Monday.

"Our teams are ready to scour the area to find if there
are more survivors," said Lieutenant Armand Balilo, coast
guard spokesman. "There are even divers and equipment to
go under the ship if the weather permits."

The life raft that reached Mulanay initially carried 30
people, but two fell overboard during the rough journey,
Posadas said.

Susan Lesbo, one of the survivors, told local
television that they were able to successfully manoeuvre
their life raft to shore because some of their companions
were seamen.

"We were successful because the seamen knew how to manoeuvre the raft," she said.

Jonathan Rendo, another survivor, added that they all
helped each other through the harrowing ordeal.

"We knew that we had to be strong together because if
not, we will all die," he said, holding back tears.

On Sunday, four survivors were found in San Fernando
town on Sibuyuan Island.

The 24,000-tonne Princess of the Stars sank after
running aground due to huge waves and strong winds spawned
by Typhoon Fengshen, which left at least 156 people dead.

Attorney Manuel Espina, a spokesman for Sulpicio Lines,
said 724 passengers and 121 crew members were aboard the
Princess of the Stars when it sank.

The Philippine Coast Guard has reported only 626
passengers aboard the vessel.

Sea travel is a major mode of transportation in the
Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands.

The Philippines was the site of the world's worst
peacetime shipping disaster in 1987, when more than 4,000
people perished in a collision between the ferry Dona Paz
and an oil tanker off the central island of Mindoro just
before Christmas.

Earlier report:

Manila (dpa) - Twenty-eight survivors have been
recovered from a passenger ferry with 800 passengers
aboard that sank in the central Philippines, a police
official said Monday.

Senior Superintendent Fidel Posadas said the 28 people
from the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars were
recovered in Mulanay town in Quezon province, 150
kilometres south-east of Manila.

Posadas said that local authorities were coordinating
with Sulpicio Lines, owner of the ill-fated ferry, to turn
over the survivors.

The recovery brought to 32 the number of survivors
recovered from the sinking of the Princess of the Stars
Saturday off the coast of Sibuyan Island in the central
Philippines.

On Sunday, four survivors were found in San Fernando
town on Sibuyuan island.

The 24,000-tonne ferry sank after running aground due
to huge waves and strong winds spawned by Typhoon Fengshen,
which left at least 152 people dead.

The death toll included 10 fatalities from the ferry
sinking, according to the Philippine National Red Cross.

Attorney Manuel Espina, a spokesman for Sulpicio Lines,
said that 724 passengers and 121 crew members were aboard
the Princess of the Stars when it sank.

The Philippine Coast Guard has reported only 626
passengers aboard the vessel.

Rescuers were braving rough seas in search of more
survivors and fatalities as Fengshen continued to unleash
heavy rains and strong winds.

Two dead in boating accident in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, June 20,
2008 (Xinhua) --
Two people were dead and another person was in
critical condition on Friday following a boating
accident at Waikawa Bay in New Zealand South Island's
Picton.

Police said several people were injured when a
runabout collided with a moored ex-naval boat on
Friday, Radio New Zealand reported.

The group was rescued from the water and
treated by ambulance crews. Two rescue helicopters
were also sent to the area.

Harbor officials said visibility was clear when
the collision happened.

Summit Rescue Helicopters, which flew two men
to Wellington Hospital, said the boat was hit by sun
strike and ran into the back of the other vessel.

A spokesperson said there were five or six
people on board, two of whom died.

CEBU CITY, Philippines - After almost two months
of waiting, Narcisa Antimaro finally found closure.

On Sunday, Manang Narcisa, 74, was reunited with
her son Jonathan, 39, who would have remained one of the
unidentified victims of the ill-fated MV Princess of the
Stars were it not for the DNA matching that gave him
back his identity.

It was a bittersweet moment for Manang Narcisa as
she cried tears of joy and sorrow, along with the kin of
nine other passengers of the capsized vessel whose
remains were identified by matching their DNA with that
of their relatives.

The bodies of the 10 passengers were released on
Sunday to their families at the Cosmopolitan Funeral
Homes on Junquera Street in downtown Cebu.

Jonathan, a beautician based in Manila, was coming
home to Cebu to celebrate his 39th birthday on June 24.

When the Princess of the Stars sank on June 21,
Manang Narcisa prayed that he survived and was just
stranded somewhere.

But she has since accepted the fate of her son and
now could only thank the International Commission on
Missing Persons (ICMP), the International Police
Organization (Interpol) and the Cebu City government for
helping identify her son.

Manang Narcisa would bring the remains of Jonathan
to Toledo City, their hometown, where he would be
buried.

But for Roweno Adolfo, 27, there could be no
relief yet even if the remains of his wife, Mercedita
Escuardo Adolfo, 29, had been identified by DNA matching
and turned over to him on Sunday.

Roweno said he wanted to bring his wife's body to
her hometown in Dumanjug where she would be buried but
he did not have the money to do it.

He said he had yet to receive the promised
financial assistance from Sulpicio Lines Inc., the owner
of MV Princess of the Stars.

Roweno said he could not give his wife a decent
burial. He would have to ask help from his wife’s
employer, the Cebu-based East-West Meddah Spa, which
operated a branch on board the ill-fated ship.

Roweno said he also lost his job in a glass
company in Mandaue City because he spent more time
following up on the whereabouts of his wife and
processing the documents needed to identify her than at
work.

Dr. Renato Bautista, officer-in-charge of the
Disaster Victim Identification of the National Bureau of
Investigation (DVI-NBI), told reporters on Sunday that
25 bodies had been matched but they could only release
10 bodies that had gone through and passed the required
documentation for proper identification.

Bautista said the other 15 bodies would still go
through the identification board, which is composed of
himself as chairman, and forensic experts such as a DNA
analyst, a dentist and a fingerprint examiner.

Bautista said the process could take a while. They
would release the results to the public as soon as these
were completed.

Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP director general, arrived
in Cebu on Sunday to assure the families of the victims
that they would give them the most accurate result of
DNA matching.

She said the DNA matching results would take three
weeks if the blood samples of the immediate families and
the bone marrow samples from the victims were available
at the ICMP headquarters in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Bomberger said they have received 1,663 blood
samples from the family members of 777 missing persons
out of the 866 originally reported as missing from the
Princess of the Stars tragedy.

The bodies recovered that are now in the
Cosmopolitan Funeral Parlor might not all have come from
the capsized ship. Authorities suspected that some of
the bodies might also be fatalities of other sea mishaps
that occurred on June 21 at the height of typhoon Frank.

At least 1,376 persons died or went missing at sea
due to typhoon Frank.

Redj Antido of the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in
Cebu City, which supervised the refrigerated morgue
where the cadavers were kept, said nine of the bodies
were claimed by their relatives as of 3 p.m. Sunday.

Antido said the remains of Tulda had no claimants
until 5 p.m. Sunday.

Antido said the NBI forensic team called up the
relatives and informed them that their missing relative
had been identified.

To ensure order, relatives of the victims were
earlier advised not to flock to the Cosmopolitan Funeral
Parlor, the NBI office here or at the Camp Sergio
Osmeña. They were told to wait for calls from the NBI
for further instruction.

Around 200 cadavers have been brought to Cebu for
identification.

The bodies were recovered off and around Sibuyan
Island in Romblon, where MV Princess of the Stars
capsized on June 21 amid foul weather spawned by typhoon
Frank, and from within the sunken vessel.

Before the identification of the 10 bodies on
Sunday, NBI forensic teams released at least 19 bodies
to their relatives.

Bautista called on families of missing persons to
submit their blood samples so that all of the bodies
recovered could be properly identified.

Bomberger said there are 170 staff members at the
ICMP headquarters who are working seven days a week
solely to match the blood samples of the Typhoon Frank
victims in the Philippines.

“We are doing the DNA matching more rapidly and
accurately with the help of the modern technology,”
Bomberger told Cebu Daily News.

The blood samples from the families and the bone samples
from the victims are shipped to Sarajevo, while ICMP
will send to Cebu the results of the DNA matching
electronically through e-mail.

Ronald Noble, director general of Interpol, also
assured that the results of the victims’ identification
were 100 percent accurate.

Noble said each victim has an individual folder
containing all ante-mortem, post-mortem data and results
from all the examinations done on the remains.

It might be a lengthy process but “we want better
results than 100 percent accuracy in identifying the
victims,” Noble said.

Despite the identification of some bodies, there
are still hundreds of passengers and crew believed to be
trapped inside the capsized vessel.

Although the length of time the bodies have been
soaked in seawater might cause the DNA quality to
deteriorate, the time is not long enough for the bodies
to become unidentifiable, said Bomberger.

But she said it would be best if the vessel is
immediately re-floated as it would speed up the bodies’
recovery and fast-track their identification.

But Bomberger and Noble assured that the ICMP and
the Interpol would remain in the country until the last
recovered body is identified.

Bomberger said her heart goes out to families of
the victims who have waited patiently for the results to
arrive.

She said she hoped that they would be able to
produce 10 to 20 identifications on a weekly basis.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, meanwhile, called on
the media to treat the deceased with respect.

He said the media should be considerate to the
families of the victims since most of those who died in
the tragedy were breadwinners.

“Don't treat them as another set of statistics,”
the mayor said. /With a report from Jhunnex
NapallacanTo subscribe to the
Cebu Daily News newspaper, call +63 2 (032) 233-6046
for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your
subscription request
here.

Copyright 2008 Cebu Daily News. All rights reserved

Capsized Fisherman Helped By Hero Dolphin

20th August 2008

Masbate, The Philippines -- A dolphin rescued a
fisherman after his fishing boat capsized Saturday in
the wake of typhoon "Frank" off Negros, although both
of them died upon reaching the shore of Burias Island
in Masbate.

Online news site Visayan Daily Star reported
Thursday that a survivor who witnessed the incident
recounted the episode Wednesday.

The dolphin rescued Joseph Cesdorio, 34, a
fisherman from Cebu who was among the crew members of
the F/B Nicole Louise 2, a Cadiz-based fishing boat.

Caratao said he saw a dolphin, which was about
the size of an adult human, drag and push Cesdorio,
34, toward Burias Island.

Unfortunately, neither Cesdorio nor the dolphin
survived, he added.

The story of the dolphin’s heroism was
corroborated by other survivors who were aboard the
Nicole Louise 2. One of them told local radio
reporters that because of what he witnessed, he vowed
never to eat dolphin meat again.

The body of Cesdorio, which was retrieved from
Burias Island, was among the four fatalities brought
to Cadiz City and was claimed by his father who is a
resident of San Jose, Cebu.

May 28,
2008 18:36 PM

Six Dead, Three Missing
After East China Ship Collision

NANJING,
May 28 (Bernama) -- Six people died and three
were missing after a ship carrying students
preparing for a maritime piloting test struck
a cargo ship in the Yangtze River in eastern
Jiangsu Province, Xinhua news agency quoted
the local maritime authority as saying
Wednesday.

There were 24 people aboard the "Yuejiang"
ship, heading to Zhenjiang City for the test.
The ship hit the cargo carrier "Jiangxiazhan"
in Jurong City at 11:35 a.m. on Tuesday, a
Jiangsu Provincial Maritime Bureau official
said.

The Yuejiang, which belonged to the Port of
Nanjing, sank after the collision. Six people
died and 15 were saved by rescuers.

Twenty maritime ships and 10 rescue ships were
on the spot, seeking the three missing.

No casualties were reported on the
Jiangxiazhan, which was from Shanghai.

The Transport Ministry set up an investigation
team on Wednesday to probe the cause of the
accident, the official said.

-- BERNAMA

Eight missing in E China ship collision

NANJING, May 27,
2008 (Xinhua) --
Eight passengers were missing after a yacht collided
with a cargo ship in a section of the Yangtse River in
the eastern Jiangsu Province on Tuesday, the local
maritime authority said.

In total, there were 24 people on board the
"Yuejiang" yacht, of which 16 were rescued after the
two ships collided in Jurong City at 11:35 a.m.. No
casualties were reported on the "Jiangxiazhan" cargo
ship from Shanghai, a Jiangsu Provincial Maritime
Bureau official said.

A total of 20 maritime ships were on the
spot to make the rescue. The cause of the accident is
under investigation.

Sydney Harbor
Boat Collision Death Toll Reaches Six
(Update1)

By Ed Johnson

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- A boat crash on Sydney
Harbor between a fishing trawler and an
overloaded cruiser claimed a sixth life after
a man died in hospital from brain injuries,
police said.

The collision took place in the early hours
of yesterday morning, triggering a rescue
operation on the harbor involving more than 50
emergency workers, police boats and
helicopters, New South Wales police said.

Four women and a man died at the scene,
while another man died yesterday at the city's
Royal North Shore Hospital. Officers released
the identities of five of the six victims,
aged between 20 and 29. The U.S. Embassy in
Canberra said one was American.

The accident, described by police as the
worst fatal crash on the
harbor in living memory, came a month
after the state's transport safety watchdog
called for tighter regulation of recreational
boating on Sydney's waterways.

Police yesterday impounded both vessels for
forensic tests. Officers are determining
whether possible consumption of alcohol played
any part in the collision, said Superintendent
Mark Hutchings of Marine Area Command.

``A number of people were breath tested and
a number of people had blood samples taken
from them,'' he told reporters.

Repair Company

The six dead and eight injured were on
board a seven-meter (23-foot) half-cabin
cruiser which belongs to a ship repair company
and is licensed to carry only eight people.

John McPherson, whose
Sydney Ship Repair and Engineering company
owns the boat, said yesterday it was taken
from its berth without permission and wasn't
being used by any of his workers.

Most of the injured and dead were workers
or customers at a bar in the Sydney
harbor-side suburb of Balmain, the Sydney
Morning Herald reported.

The crash came 13 months after an
out-of-service commuter ferry and a private
cruiser collided beneath the Harbor Bridge,
killing four people, including two
international skating judges.

Five die
after cabin cruiser is hit by trawler in Sydney harbour

Five people were killed and another nine injured after a
trawler collided with a cabin cruiser in the dark in Sydney
harboure.

The collision threw all 14 people aboard the cruiser
into the water and left the vessel badly damaged, a police
spokesman said. All the dead and injured - who were aged
between 18 and 31 - had been in the smaller boat.

The harbour is the site of Australian landmarks such
as the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the crash
was in an area where sightseeing is common. But it was cold
as well as dark at the time of the collision, and the
manager of Sydney Ship Repair and Engineering, which owns
the six-metre (23-ft) half-cabin cruiser, designed to carry
eight passengers, said it was not on company work at the
time; staff arrived at work to find it missing.

The manager, John McPherson, told a local newspaper
that all his workers had been accounted for and none worked
overnight. The injured are in hospital, where a doctor said
one injured man was in critical condition, two were in a
serious condition, while the others had minor injuries.

Australia's prime minister Kevin Rudd told a radio
station he was shocked by news of the collision: "This is
every parents' nightmare. For the parents of those who have
lost their lives this is just a terrible, terrible day."

Passing vessels raised the alarm and pulled injured
people from the water, which was chilled by a cold snap in
what is Australia's autumn.

Ambulance and water police described a chaotic scene
as the injured were treated on a small wharf before being
moved to hospital. "It was pitch black, quite cool," said an
ambulance inspector, Stephanie Radnidge.

Collisions are rare in the harbour of Australia's
largest city. It was once a busy commercial port, but is now
dominated by pleasure craft, passenger ferries and cruise
ships.

Coast Guard: 4 dead from sinking ship

Associated Press Writer
3-23-08

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Coast Guard says four crew
members are dead after a
Seattle-based fishing boat began sinking off
Alaska's Dutch Harbor.

Coast Guard Lt. Eric Eggan (EE'-gan) says
43 other crew members who abandoned ship
early Sunday have been recovered safely.

Eggan says all are heading to Dutch
Harbor in a
Coast Guard cutter and a sister ship
of the 184-foot Alaska Ranger. The vessel
began taking on water shortly before 3 a.m.
after losing control of its rudder 120 miles
west of
Dutch Harbor.

Eggan says it's unknown how or when
the four died. The identities of the dead
are also unknown.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check
back soon for further information. AP's
earlier story is below.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — All 47 crew
members of a Seattle-based fishing boat have
abandoned ship after the vessel started
sinking about 120 miles off Alaska.

Coast Guard Lt. Eric Eggan (EE'-gan)
says 26 people have been safely recovered
from life rafts.

The 180-foot Alaska Ranger started
taking on water shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday
after losing control of its rudder.

A Coast Guard cutter and aircraft and
the Alaska Ranger's sister ship are taking
part in the rescue.

Nineteen missing, feared
dead as two ships collide
off Hong Kong

Sun, 23 Mar 2008
01:28:02 GMT
World
Hong Kong -
Marine police
divers in Hong Kong were
Sunday searching for
survivors after at least
19 crew members were lost
as two ships collided in
thick fog. Seven people -
six men and one woman -
were pulled from the
waters between Hong Kong's Lantau Island and its
Kowloon peninsula after
the tugboat and freighter
collided at around 9 pm on
Saturday.

Some crew were thrown into
the water by the force of
the collision while others
are believed to have been
trapped inside a cabin
aboard one of the vessels,
a marine police spokesman
said.

The freighter sank after
the collision, which took
place near to a group of
islands called The
Brothers a few miles from
the runway of Hong Kong
International Airport on
Lantau island.

Thick fog had reduced
visibility to as little as
700 metres at the time of
the accident. Fireboats
and a government
helicopter joined in the
search for survivors
Sunday morning.

If the 19 missing are
confirmed dead, the
incident will count as the
worst single marine
accident in Hong Kong's
busy but closely regulated
waters for decades.
Copyright, respective author
or news agency

Body of Missing Sailor Found

By Associated Press

5:45 AM CST, March 6, 2008

TOKYO - Fishermen have found the body
of a Filipino ship's captain who fell overboard after a
three-ship collision overnight in southern Japan, bringing
the death toll to 2, Japan's coast guard said Thursday.

Rescuers are still searching for two other sailors from the
cargo vessel Gold Leader who also went overboard and remain
missing, said Japanese Coast Guard official Tomoyuki Sato.

The Belize-registered cargo ship sank after it was involved
in collision Wednesday with a Japan-registered vessel and a
tanker in the Akashi Strait, near the western city of Kobe.

The crew of a fishing boat working
Thursday in nearby waters found the body of the Gold
Leader's captain, Tomas Nirid Demandaco Jr., 51, Sato said.

One of the six crew members who had been rescued after the
accident died at a hospital early Thursday, Sato said. All
nine of the Gold Leader's crew were Filipinos.

None of the crew members from the other two ships were
injured in the collision.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All
rights reserved.

Tanker warned prior to collision in Akashi Strait

The Yomiuri Shimbun

KOBE--The 5th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters
radioed warning messages to a tanker shortly before it
collided with two other vessels, causing one of them to
sink, in the Akashi Strait off Kobe on Wednesday, it was
learned Thursday.

The coast guard headquarters received no response from
the 2,948-ton tanker Ocean Phoenix and is investigating how
the accident occurred.

Of the three missing crew members of the Gold Leader,
a Belize-registered cargo ship that sank shortly after the
collisions, the body of Capt. Tomasniri D Demanaco Jr. was
found Thursday afternoon by a trawler.

The coast guard and other organizations have begun
removing fuel oil leaked by the Gold Leader from the surface
of the sea.

The oil that leaked from the sunken vessel was
floating near Harimanada off Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture,
forming a slick 36-kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide.

According to the coast guard headquarters, the Osaka
Wan Traffic Advisory Service Center in Awaji, Hyogo
Prefecture, which is responsible for marine traffic in Osaka
Bay, confirmed that the Daigo Eisei Maru cargo ship,
carrying a cargo of gravel, rapidly approached the Ocean
Phoenix from behind about one minute before the first
collision.

The headquarters then radioed the tanker twice,
saying, "A vessel is approaching from starboard." There was
no reply, even though ships are required by law to
acknowledge radio transmissions. The coast guard has begun
inspecting the Ocean Phoenix.

(Mar. 7, 2008)

3 Chinese sailors missing
in ship collision

An oil tanker and a
fishing boat collided at
high sea, 16 km from the
Angolan coast at Namibe,
south Angola, leaving three
sailors missing, an official
of the Namibe Port
Administration said on
Monday.

The accident occurred
when the fishing boat owned
by a South Korean fishing
company collided with the "Iceia"
vessel, a Greek oil tanker
registered in Panama which
was making the regular
Luanda-Cape Town (South
Africa) route, he added.

The official affirmed
that an investigation team
was set up by the Sea Ports
Administration of Angola to
assess the cause of the
accident.

(Xinhua News Agency
February 12, 2008)

2 dead, 1
missing after South Korea cargo ship
collision

Associated
PressFirst
Posted 17:03:00 02/04/2008

SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean cargo ship sank Monday after a
collision with a tug boat off the
country's west coast, leaving two crew
dead and one missing, the Coast Guard
said.

Three other crew members were
rescued after a 600-ton freighter
collided with a 270-ton tug boat, said
Coast Guard official Cho Young-chol.

Coast Guard officials were
investigating the cause of the Monday
afternoon accident in waters near the
western port of Incheon, he said. Ten
Coast Guard vessels were dispatched to
the site to find the one missing.

The accident occurred a day after a
similar collision in waters near the
southern resort island of Jeju that
left one fisherman dead and two others
still missing.

15 killed in ships collision at Yangtze
estuary

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-30 20:07

The cargo ship, with 17 crew aboard, sank
after crashing into another cargo ship at
1:30 a.m. Wednesday at the No. 3 anchorage.

Only one member of the crew was rescued. The
sunken ship was hoisted out of the water as
rescue operation continued. Local
authorities have started an investigation
into the cause of the accident.

SHANGHAI, China -

Fifteen sailors drowned and
another was missing after two ships
collided Wednesday on China's Yangtze
river, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said one of the
ships sank after the pre-dawn collision.
It said of the 17 on board, 15 died, one
was rescued and another was missing.

It did not give any other details.
Earlier, the government's work safety
agency said 14 were missing after the
collision.

The 3,500-mile Yangtze runs from
the Tibetan plateau to the sea near
Shanghai and is a major shipping route.

South Korean ship leaks chemicals, crew
lost

Published: Tuesday 25 December 2007
07:49 UTC

Yeosu (25 December) - A cargo ship carrying
2,000 tonnes of nitric acid has sunk off the
coast of South Korea. The authorities say
there is no environmental danger as the
chemical dissolves easily in water.

Only one member of the crew was rescued on
Tuesday and 12 South Korean and two Burmese
shipmates are missing. The ship was sailing
from the southern port of Yeosu to Taiwan.

South Korea's coast was badly polluted a few
weeks ago when a tanker leaked oil following
a collision with a barge. The captains of
the barge and a tug were arrested on Monday
in connection with the incident.

Ship collision leaves 19 fishermen missing off
China

12-16-07

Beijing - Rescue services were
searching on Sunday for 19 people
missing since their fishing boat
collided with a
Liberian-registered ship off the
coast of eastern China's Zhejiang
province, state media said. Only
one of the 20 crew on the fishing
boat was rescued after the
accident late Saturday evening
capsized their vessel, the
official Xinhua news agency said.

The Liberian ship "Formosa 10" was
sailing from Taiwan to South Korea
when it his the smaller boat, the
agency quoted the Zhejiang
Maritime Affairs Bureau as saying.

The bureau mobilized 10 rescue
boats, 20 fishing boats and a
helicopter to search for the
missing people on Sunday, but held
slim hopes of finding them alive
in the winter sea.

"The visibility at the sea is
favorable but the temperature of
the sea water is very low," the
agency quoted rescue officials as
saying.

"Usually, it's hard for people to
survive more than 12 hours in such
cold water," they said.
Copyright, respective author or news
agency

Boat, Cargo Ship
Collision Kills 31 In Nigeria

October 5, 2007 8:01
p.m. EST

Windsor Genova - AHN Writer

Kano, Nigeria (AHN) - A passenger boat and
a cargo ship, both sailing at night without
lights, collided in a river in Nigeria killing
31 people.

A police official in northwestern Nigeria
said the collision happened on Wednesday night
on the Dola Kaina River, about 250 miles (400
kilometers) northwest of the capital, Abuja.
Police Commissioner Muktar Ibrahim confirmed the
two vessels were sailing without lights.

The official said rescuers recovered 31
bodies. Six survived the accident and were sent
to a hospital in Birnin Kebbi for treatment.

At least one person was killed and 10
others went missing when a Chinese fishing
boat hit a cargo ship on the Yellow Sea
off northeast China's Liaoning Province
early on Wednesday, the local maritime
police said.

The fishing boat, registered in Liaoning's
Dandong city, collided with a
10,000-tonnage ship from the port city of
Dalian about 30 nautical miles southwest
of Dadong Port.

The fishing boat capsized and all the 11
people aboard fell into the sea.

One person was taken out but died
despite medical treatment, Xinhua news
agency reported, adding that rescuers are
still searching for the 10 missing.One dead, 10 missing in ship
collision in Yellow Sea

Beijing, Oct. 3 (PTI): At least
one person was killed and 10
others went missing when a Chinese
fishing boat hit a cargo ship on
the Yellow Sea off northeast
China's Liaoning Province early
today, the local maritime police
said.

The
fishing boat, registered in
Liaoning's Dandong city, collided
with a 10,000-tonnage ship from
the port city of Dalian about 30
nautical miles southwest of Dadong
Port.

One
person was taken out but died
despite medical treatment, Xinhua
news agency reported, adding that
rescuers are still searching for
the 10 missing.

14 Missing: Cargo Ship Sinking in
Western PhilippinesMike Cohen, PNC Correspondent
02.OCT.07
7:55 p.m. A U.S. Navy P3 Orion and Malaysian patrol
craft have joined Philippine Navy and Coast Guard
rescue teams frantically searching for fourteen
crewmen of an ill-fated cargo ship that floundered in
heavy seas after a tropical storm surge whipped up
huge waves in the Sulu Sea this weekend.

The search is taking place near the Tuabataha reef,
where the vessel went down late Thursday night. Four
crewmen of the vessel, the MV Mia, left San Fernando
town in Cebu province and were two days overdue when a
search party found the men, radio reports said.

The first group of survivors were rescued late Monday
evening and said all of the crew had abandoned ship.
Warm tropical waters and seasonal rain give the men a
good chance of survival.

However authorities are concerned of the the location
of the vessels sinking. The Sulu Sea and in
particular, the Tubataha reef area, is a major
breeding ground for tuna schools and is infested with
large populations of predator fish, Barracuda,
Hammerhead, Tiger, and, Black and Grey Reef Sharks.

Authorities are conducting round the clock search and
rescue operations in hopes of finding the remaining
men who are believed to be on a life raft.

Past sinking's in the area have led to stories of both
miraculous survival, such as a fisherman whose vessel
sank here and survived for 41 days till he was carried
by currents to the Palau Islands.

The Sulu Sea, also has been the scene of some the
worst disasters in maritime history, such as the
sinking of the MV Dona Paz, after a collision with a
tanker that left over 8,000 dead from the two vessels.
- PNC International

Other Records say
that 4,375 drowned when the Dona Paz hit the tanker
Victor on 12-21-1987. In the Sulu Sea off the
Phillipines.

Responsibilities in ship collision to be identified

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-05-17

The mystery surrounding a collision between an ROK freighter and
a Chinese container ship last Saturday thickened today when it was
revealed that some of the crew of the Chinese ship had had contacts
with the stricken "Golden Rose" at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

According to earlier reports, the "Golden Rose" sank off the
coast near Yantai City, in east China's Shandong Province, around
3:00 a.m. Saturday in heavy fog after colliding with the Chinese
container ship "Jinsheng", operated by Shandong Lufeng Shipping
Company Ltd.

"The crew of the 'Jinsheng' told the investigation team that it
had contacts with 'Golden Rose' at 9 a.m. on Saturday, but why both
parties failed to inform the maritime authorities is a mystery. The
investigation team is looking into it," he said.

Liu Gongchen, executive deputy director of the China Maritime
Search and Rescue Center, said at a press conference held in Beijing
on Thursday that China's Ministry of Communications has set up an
investigation team.

"China will invite ROK experts to join the Chinese team
investigating the accident and the "Jinsheng" and its operators,"
Liu told reporters.

"We promise we will announce the investigation results as soon as
possible. If the 'Jinsheng' is found out to have broken the law, the
people concerned will be held responsible and prosecuted, " he said.

"China will use due legal process to determine responsibilities
in the accident", he insisted.

Investigators are wondering why neither ship sent an SOS signal
at the time of the accident and why the container ship continued to
steam toward port in Dalian, in northeast China's Liaoning Province,
apparently without going to help the stricken vessel.

Sixteen sailors from the ROK ship "Golden Rose" -- eight ROK
nationals, seven from Myanmar and one from Indonesia -- are still
missing almost a week after the accident.

An emergency Chinese diving team, including 16 divers, two
instructors, two doctors and an engineer, on Thursday arrived in the
sea area off Yantai where the collision occurred, according to the
official.

"They are ready to dive down to the sunken ship whenever sea
conditions permit," he said.

Zhai Jiugang, director of the General Office of the China
Maritime Search and Rescue Center, said the "Golden Rose" is
supposed to be equipped with three life rafts, and only two have
been found, "so there is a possibility that someone may have
survived".

But Zhai said that people can usually survive for only about
three hours in water with temperatures ranging from four to 10
degrees Celsius. If the temperature of the water is 10 to 15
degrees, they may survive for six hours.

"Hopes of survival are obviously very slim if the seamen fell
overboard because water temperatures in the area where the collision
occurred are only about nine to 10 degrees," he said.

Asked at the press conference whether Chinese authorities had
reported the accident to the ROK authorities in a timely manner,
Zhai responded that the Yantai Maritime Affairs Bureau received the
collision report from Shandong Lufeng Shipping Company Ltd. at 11:40
a.m. on Saturday. The China Maritime Search and Rescue Center
received the report in turn at 1:00 p.m. and informed ROK
authorities at 1:07 p.m.

"International maritime practice states that ships must be
equipped with manual and automatic alarms so that they can
immediately send out SOS signals if they are in danger, but neither
China nor the ROK or any other neighboring country or region
received an SOS signal from the 'Golden Rose'," Zhai said.

More than 300 Chinese ships and three aircraft have joined the
search for the missing sailors, and China has invited the ROK to
send rescue boats and coast guard vessels. Rescuers have retrieved
two life rafts, four life rings, traces of fuel oil and other debris
from the "Golden Rose" -- but have found no sign of the seamen.

Vietnam ship
collision leaves 1 dead, 7 missing

Associated Press05/16/2007

HANOI, Vietnam -- Two ships collided in southern Vietnam and one
sank, leaving one person dead and seven missing, state media
reported Tuesday.

The vessel Gas Shanghai, registered in Marshall Islands,
slammed into the Vietnamese Hoang Dat 36 near the mouth of the
Saigon river, the online version of the Thanh Nien (Young People)
newspaper said.

The Vietnamese ship sank nearly an hour after being hit, the
report said.

The Gas Shanghai was being held by Vietnamese authorities
for further investigation, the online VnExpress reported.

The body of a local sailor was recovered two hours after the
afternoon incident, and rescuers were still searching for seven
others who were reported missing, the Thanh Nien said.

The dead sailor and all those missing had been on the
Vietnamese ship.

The Hoang Dat 36 vessel, carrying 2,000 tons of tin sheets
from Jakarta, Indonesia with 16 Vietnamese sailors aboard, had
been preparing to anchor when the accident occurred, the newspaper
said.

It said eight other sailors on the Vietnamese ship swam to
safety.

Port officials were not available for comment Tuesday
evening.

Two die in Israel ship collision
August 31, 2007

Israeli divers have found the bodies
of two sailors missing in the Mediterranean after an Israeli cargo
ship was hit by a Cypriot cruise liner.

The Slovakian men were found inside the sunken ship, Shelly, 2.5km
(1.9 miles) from the Israeli port of Haifa.

The discovery followed an intensive search that included six
Israeli navy boats and several military aircraft.

Eleven other members of the Shelly's crew were rescued by the navy
shortly after the collision on Thursday.

None of the 700 passengers and crew of the Cypriot vessel, Salamis
Glory, was injured. They will be flown to Cyprus on Friday.

'Cut in two'

The collision is believed to have occurred around 2200 (1900 GMT)
on Thursday, shortly after the Salamis Glory left Haifa's port.

The cruise ship is said to have struck the Shelly as it lay
anchored near the coast.

Although Israeli police have said they will be investigating the
cause of the accident, unconfirmed reports say it may have been the
result of a malfunction in the steering equipment on the Cypriot
vessel.

The Salamis Glory returned to Haifa on Friday morning with light
damage visible on its hull.

Ship collision kills Ukrainian, Indonesian-police

31 Aug 2007 11:32:42 GMT

Source: Reuters

JERUSALEM, Aug 31,2007 - (Reuters) - Israeli forces
retrieved the bodies on Friday of two Ukrainian and
Indonesian sailors who died when an Israeli freighter sank
following a collision with a Cypriot cruise ship off the
coast of Haifa, police said.

The forces had rescued 11 crew from the
Israeli-owned "Shelly" cargo vessel, but the freighter had
sunk and its captain and crew member had gone down with
it, officials said.

Israeli navy divers retrieved the bodies of the sailors
following hours of rescue efforts. Israeli Police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the captain was a
30-year-old from Indonesia and the crew member was a
22-year-old Ukrainian.

They were not identified by name.

Some 700 passengers and crew of the "Salamis Glory"
cruise ship were unharmed by the collision near the
northern port of Haifa and a spokesman for the company
said they would be flown to Cyprus. The cause of the crash
was not immediately clear.

"Salamis Glory passed inspection by the Greek
authorities in Mytilini on Aug 19," said Kyriacos Kofteros,
officer at the Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping
"They did not find any problems. In addition, the ship
passed an inspection on June 30 by Lloyds experts".
Kofteros said experts from the shipping department
would leave for Israel later on Friday to help authorities
with the investigations.

August 31, 2007
05:53pmArticle from: Reuters

ISRAELI forces retrieved today the bodies
of two sailors declared missing off the
coast of the northern port of Haifa after an
Israeli freighter collided with a Cypriot
cruise ship, emergency services said.

The forces had rescued 11 crew from the
Shelly cargo vessel, which sank in
yesterday's collision. Israeli media said they
were mostly Indonesian and Ukrainian and were
en route to Cyprus. Israel Radio said the men
who died were from Slovakia.

All of the 700 passengers and crew of
the Cypriot cruise ship Salamis,
which had sailed from Cyprus, were unharmed
and the vessel remains anchored.

The cause of the collision is being
investigated.
Crew on Israeli ship involved in deadly
collision with Japanese boat arrestedBy:
Associated Press Published: October
24, 2005 The
captain and two other crew members of the
Israeli ship involved in a deadly
collision with a Japanese fishing boat
have been arrested on charges of causing
death by negligence and failure to save
lives at sea, Israeli police said Monday.

The Israeli captain of the Zim Asia, Moshe
Ben David, was released on bail and placed
under house arrest until Oct. 31, police
spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. The
Yugoslav second captain, citizen Pilastro
Zdravko, and the ship's Bulgarian lookout
man, Lache Galin, have been jailed until
that date. In the interim, police will
continue their investigation and decide
how to proceed, Rosenfeld said.

The three were detained for police
questioning in Israel on Sunday after the
Zim Asia docked in the northern Israeli
port of Haifa. Police also raided Zim
corporate headquarters in Haifa,
confiscating documents, Rosenfeld said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Treating Contaminated Sand in Kiryat HaimIsrael Ministry of
the Environment, Israel -Oct 10, 2007The collision and subsequent sinking of
the cargo ship "Shelly" led to the spill of large
quantities of diesel oil, which settled on the shores of
Kiryat

NOTE: This article was
pulled as soon as it was posted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seven Japanese sailors died after the
41,507-ton Zim Asia collided with their
fishing boat, causing it to capsize 25
miles off the cape of Nosappu in northern
Japan on Sept. 28.

Ben David has denied responsibility for
the incident, and his lawyer, Gad Nashitz,
told Israel Radio on Sunday that his
client was asleep at the time of the
accident.

Israeli Transportation Minister Meir
Sheetrit has vowed to punish the skipper
if he is found responsible. Rosenfeld said
material from the investigation would be
handed over to Japanese authorities.

Ship collision leaves 20 missing in E.China sea

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-04-08 16:08

HANGZHOU -- A Chinese ship collided with a foreign cargo ship off
the east China coast at around 4:00 a.m. Sunday. The foreign ship
sank immediately and 20 crew members are missing, according to
marine police in Taizhou city, in east China's Zhejiang province.

The 6,500-ton cargo ship "Harvest" was en route from Shanghai to
Vietnam when it collided with the Chinese cargo ship "Jinhaikun", at
28 degrees 20.8 minutes north latitude and 122 degrees 2.6 minutes
east longitude, in Taizhou Bay, east China.

All 20 crew members aboard -- nineteen Chinese and an Indonesian
-- are missing.

The 17,061-ton Chinese ship is from Fuzhou, capital of east
China's Fujian province and was bound for Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu
Province.

Three patrol boats from Zhejiang marine police, two professional
rescue vessels, a helicopter and four fishing boats have converged
on the area to try to save the seamen. The Chinese navy has also
sent two escort vessels and a helicopter to assist rescue work.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the
accident.

Six Missing In Ship Collision In
China

September 29, 2007 2:29 p.m. EST

Mercedes Rullan - AHN News Writer

Beijing, China (AHN) - Two Chinese ships collided and
capsized in China's northeast Liaoning Province on Saturday.
Six people were reported missing after the collision, local
maritime officials said.

A spokesman of Liaoning Maritime Affairs Bureau told the
local media that the two vessels, used for carrying sand,
collided and capsized on Saturday off the coast of Huludao
City.

All 22 sailors fell into the Bohai Sea.

Rescuers and divers were able to rescue 16 sailors and
they are still searching for the other six people.

The two vessels, used for carrying sand, collided
and capsized at about 8 a.m. off the coast of the
Huludao City, and altogether 22 sailors fell into the
Bohai Sea, said a spokesman with the Liaoning Maritime
Affairs Bureau.

KUSHIRO, Japan,
Sept. 15 (AP) - (Kyodo)—One person went missing
and another suffered injuries Saturday after their
leisure fishing boat collided with a fishing boat in
waters off the Shiretoko Peninsula in northeastern
Hokkaido, the
Japan Coast Guard said.

The collision between the leisure fishing boat Kiku
Maru No. 2 and the salmon boat Mutsu Maru No. 21
occurred at around 10:30 a.m. in the sea about 2
kilometers off the peninsula's Rusha River in the town
of Shari, the
coast guard said.

One of the nine people aboard the leisure fishing
boat was thrown overboard and went missing and another
was injured and later taken to hospital, the coast
guard said, adding the remaining seven were rescued by
nearby ships. The salmon boat had a crew of six.

Collision Between
Ship, Hydrofoil in Italy Kills 4

Monday, January
15, 2007

Associated Press

ROME — A container
ship and a commuter hydrofoil collided near
the entrance to the Sicilian port ofMessina,
killing four crew members on the hydrofoil,
and injuring dozens of passengers, police and
port officials said early Tuesday. There were
80 injured of the 130 passengers.

Messina police headquarters' operations room
said the captain and three other crew members
were found dead in the wreckage of the
hydrofoil, which was nearly pierced in two on
its right side by the collision shortly after
twilight Monday evening with the much larger
cargo vessel.

Hours later, firefighters were trying to
extract the last two bodies from the wreckage,
working gingerly, police said, because of
fears any false move might cause the stricken
hydrofoil to sink.

Calabria, the "toe" of
the boot-shaped Italian peninsula, is linked
to the island of Sicily by air and sea routes.

The collision occurred
about 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) when many commuters
were returning home from jobs on the mainland.

Hanoi - A ship collision off southern Vietnam has
left 15 fishermen missing and feared drowned, local
media reported Sunday.

The small Vietnamese fishing boat collided with an
unidentified cargo ship in the South China Sea near the
port town of Vung Tau on Friday night, according to the
Vietnamese-language Thanh Nien newspaper.

The fishing boat, registered in southern Kien
Giang province, overturned and sank with 17 crew on
board. A nearby boat rescued two fishermen but 15 were
still missing and searches Saturday yielded no sign of
them, the newspaper said.

Authorities had no information on the cargo ship,
which left the scene.

In March, eight Vietnamese fishermen drowned in a
similar collision off Vung Tau, in which a cargo ship
kept going after hitting a fishing ship.

Authorities later identified a Singapore-owned
cargo ship as responsible for the accident. The ship's
Romanian captain is being held pending investigation on
charges of negligence.

Three
Chinese crew members were confirmed dead while five remain
missing following a collision between two ships early
Friday morning off Japan's eastern coast, a Chinese
Embassy spokesman in Tokyo said.

The collision occurred at around 5:10 am (2010 GMT)
about 10 kilometres southwest of the Cape Inubosaki in the
Chiba prefecture that neighbours Tokyo in the east.

The
Wei Hang 9, a 3,947-ton freighter registered in Malta,
with 21 Chinese crew members sank after the incident.
The other ship, a Japanese-registered 499-ton
freighter, survived the accident and its crew remained
unhurt.

The victim died of a serious injury in the
hospital after being rescued.

Two consulates from the Chinese Embassy have
arrived at the hospital and visited the rescued
sailors, some of whom were slightly injured.

Japan Coast Guard ships and helicopters searched
for the missing Chinese crew members. The cause of the
accident is still under investigation.

The sunken ship set off from Shiogama in Japan's
Miyagi prefecture and was bound for Dalian, a port in
Northeast China's Liaoning Province, carrying 5,800
tons of scrap iron.

Beijing Time) Friday, April 09, 2004

Death toll from ship collision on Yangtze River rises
to 5

Dead bodies of three of the nine
missing crew in a major ship collision on the Yangtze
River near Wuhu, east China's Anhui Province, were found
on Thursday.

Dead bodies of three of the nine missing crew in a
major ship collision on the Yangtze River near Wuhu, east China's
Anhui Province, were found on Thursday.

So far, the death toll from the collision between an oil tanker and an
ocean-faring cargo ship occurred Sunday has risen to five, according to
the information from the rescue and salvage team. The rescue operation is
continuing.

When the oil tanker collided with a cargo ship near Wuhu on Sunday, 13
crew members on the cargo ship fell into water and the ship was submerged.
Rescuers later saved three victims and recovered one body the same day,
said Chen Yousheng, director of the Yangtze River Maritime Affairs Bureau
with the Chinese
Ministry of Communications, who is put in charge of the rescue work.

The bureau has mobilized 21 vessels to search for the nine missing crew
members in about 10 kilometers away from the site of the accident in the
lower reaches of the Yangtze, said Chen.

The oil tank belongs to an oil transport company of Nanjing City, capital
of east China's
Jiangsu Province. The ocean-going ship, loaded with granite, is from
Ma'anshan City of Anhui Province.

The 220-foot Diamond 1, carrying coal, collided with the
other vessel as it was leaving Thessaloniki, authorities said.

The 614-foot Dubai Guardian, sailing from Singapore, was
carrying metal ore. The vessel was successfully tugged to port.

Giorgos Tsamaslis, the regional government's environmental
officer, told The Associated Press that divers were examining the
hull of the Diamond 1 at a depth of about 52 feet, and that
floating barriers were being set up around the site in case of a
fuel leak.

1 dead, 7 missing after ship collision in H.K. waters

One Russian sailor is
dead and seven other seamen are missing Wednesday after their
Hong Kong-registered dredger collided with a
Singapore-registered container ship in Hong Kong waters
Tuesday night.

Hong Kong police said the Russian's body was recovered
Wednesday morning from an island near the site of the
collision off Lantau Island.

Search operations are continuing for five other Russian
crew members and two Hong Kong sailors who were on board the
dredger, A.M. Vella, when it capsized after the collision.

Seven other Russian crewmen were earlier rescued.

Police said the dredger was on its way to the
Sha Chau area to unload sand and mud when it
collided with the container vessel Kota Hadiah,
which was heading to Singapore from Shekou in
southern China via Hong Kong.

None of the
crew aboard the 13,000-ton container ship were
reported injured or missing.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo News International,
Inc.

Ship Collision Leaves one Dead in South China
September 08, 2003

A collision between an oil tanker and a freighter
near the estuary of the Pearl River early Sunday, leaving one woman dead,
according to sources with the Maritime Affairs Bureau of Guangzhou,
capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

A collision between an oil tanker and a freighter
near the estuary of the Pearl River early Sunday, leaving one woman dead,
according to sources with the Maritime Affairs Bureau of Guangzhou,
capital of south China's
Guangdong Province.

The oil tanker rammed into the bow of the freight vessel when the former
was about to leave the Zhongran Wharf of Panyu City at about 3:00 a.m.
Sunday. The ill-fated freighter, fully-loaded with stones, flooded with
water and capsized. Two men on board jumped onto the oil tanker but a
woman at the helm failed to escape.

The Guangzhou Maritime Affairs Bureau immediately sent one lifeboat, two
tugboats and three coastguard vessels to the accident site. The sunken
freighter was recovered at noon Sunday.

The collision caused no major damage to the oil tanker and no oil leaked
from the ship.

Fisherman dies in ship collision

30 March 2003

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation
report released today deals with the collision between a ship,
Asian Nova, and a fishing vessel, Sassenach, off
Townsville on 29 May 2003 in which a local fisherman lost his life.

The fishing vessel’s skipper lost his life as a result of the
collision, his body was recovered from the sunken trawler on 5 June
2003. The boat’s other crew member, the deckhand, was able to jump
clear at impact and was rescued some five hours later by a searching
fishing boat.

Poor watch handover practices and a poor lookout were
identified as major contributing factors in the collision which
occurred at about 0001 on 29 May 2003. The 225 m long, fully loaded,
Panamanian bulk carrier fouled the trawl warps of the Australian
registered fishing vessel and the prawn trawler was dragged against
the hull of the bulk carrier, damaging its port quarter and causing
it to capsize and sink.

The report concludes that the handover of watch on the bulk
carrier should not have occurred until the ship had passed the
fishing vessel and that neither of the officers on watch had
followed internationally recommended practice or company
requirements when changing watch. In addition, the oncoming officer
of the watch did not adequately assess the navigational and traffic
situation before altering course as he approached the fishing
vessel.

On Sassenach the assessment that the ship
would pass clear was made on scanty information.

The report makes recommendations about watch changeovers,
lookouts, and about correct use of navigational recording devices.

The
Stockholm was the first new passenger ship to cross the North
Atlantic after the second World War. She was the largest ship
ever built in Sweden but at the same time was the smallest
passenger liner in the North Atlantic trade. The
Swedish-American Line in 1953 had the Stockholm's superstructure
enlarged to increase its passenger capacity from 395 to 548. The
ship still retained the sleek appearance of a racing yacht. She
was 525 feet long, 69 feet at the beam, with a long forecastle,
severely raked destroyer bow and gracefully rounded cruiser
stern As her owners pointed out, the Stockholm was a ship built
for comfort rather than luxury.

By DEBRA KASZUBSKIContributing Writer

Anyone who has seen the 1997 James Cameron film
“Titanic” will recall the story of Rose, an elderly survivor of
the doomed ship, telling her account of what happened to a
captivated audience.

Pierette Simpson has a lot in common with the
fictional Rose from “Titanic.” Both survived a
horrific accident at sea and both have mesmerized
audiences with their stories. Unlike Rose, though,
Simpson is real and her tale is as awe-inspiring as
the story portrayed in the popular movie.

Last year, Simpson published the book “Alive on the
Andrea Doria! The Greatest Sea Rescue,” a nonfiction
account of the July 25, 1956 accident. On Oct. 4,
Simpson will share stories from the book, as well as
her own memories of the accident, during a luncheon at
Jovan’s restaurant in Sterling Heights. The Sterling
Heights Rotary is sponsoring the event, which will
also include a book signing.

“I am thrilled to present Pierette and this
fascinating topic,” said Dr. Martin Brown, Rotary Club
president. “I keep visualizing the Titanic when I hear
her story. It is so fascinating to have a survivor of
a major shipwreck available to share her story.”

Simpson, whose book was also published in Italian
and is being considered for an Italian movie said, “I
am so grateful to have the opportunity to share my
story with others and so many people have been
captivated by this story.”

The book explores the collision from many different
aspects, including Simpson’s own personal account of
the events before, during and after the catastrophe.
Simpson, only 9 years old at the time of the
collision, and her grandparents had left their village
of Pranzalita, near Torino in Italy, to begin a new
life in America. Simpson and her grandparents boarded
Italy’s crown jewel, the Andrea Doria, for their long
journey to what they referred to as the “promised
land.”

Simpson describes the ship in vivid detail and the
vessel sounds as plush as any modern-day cruise ship.
She describes a luxurious pool, a dining room filled
with meats, cheeses, fruits and wines. Huge flower
arrangements, ice sculptures, crystal chandeliers and
a well-appointed cabin with four beds were other
highlights of the liner.

The ship and all of its beauty were slowly engulfed
by the Atlantic Ocean on that fateful night in 1956.
Due to thick fog and human error, the Swedish liner,
Stockholm, rammed into the Andrea Doria, resulting in
the only large collision between passenger liners in
the 20th century. The collision took place 45 miles
southwest of Nantucket Island. The Doria sank 11 hours
after the collision. There were 1,706 people on board;
46 died on the Doria, five on the Stockholm.

Simpson shares her eyewitness account of the
collision in detail. She recalls the thunderous noise
of the two ships colliding and the abrupt accompanying
jolt. Other witnesses describe the “fireworks” that
were created by the grinding steel of the two ships.
What followed was pandemonium. Passengers lay on the
floor screaming from shock or injury. Others
frantically shouted out the names of loved ones.
Simpson remembers the smell of the smoke, water in the
corridors and people being covered in foul-smelling
oil.

Her escape from the ship was just as dramatic. As
the Doria sank and after rescue ships arrived, Simpson
was lowered into the black ocean by a rope tied around
her waist. A stranger in a nearby lifeboat pulled her
to safety. Simpson’s grandmother was lowered down,
too. Shortly after, Simpson met up with her
grandfather, who was also rescued unharmed.

“There was a 97 percent survival rate for the
Andrea Doria and that was due to the very fortunate
conditions and the rescuers who were there to help
us,” Simpson said.

The Coast Guard and ships of various nationalities
were involved in the rescue of the Doria’s passengers.
The Stockholm, the ship that collided with the Doria,
did not sink. It carried more than 500 survivors to
New York.

The book not only details Simpson’s personal
account of the tragedy, she also interviewed dozens of
other survivors. The book features the sinking from
various points of view. Likewise, the book offers
scientific documentation and analysis of the collision
and sinking as explained by nautical experts. Its
details are so precise that the book is being used as
a guide for those studying maritime forensic science.

The book also discloses never-before-published data
compiled in both the U.S. and Italy which poses
questions for the reader regarding who was to blame
for the disaster.

Today, the Doria remains at the bottom of the
Atlantic, in one of its deepest spots at 256 feet. The
shipwreck is so challenging to reach that it is often
referred to as the “Mt. Everest of the Deep.”

Many more details about the Doria, its passengers
and crew are available in the book. Simpson, a retired
teacher and Novi resident, started compiling stories
about the accident after sharing the account with her
students, many of whom shared an interest in the
story.

Others have taken to the book and its author. The
popular book has been featured in national and
international print, and on television; was chosen as
the Book of the Month by the United Kingdom’s premier
maritime journal “Ships Monthly”; and the Order of the
Sons of Italian Americans is including the book on its
annual recommended reading list.

Simpson is planning a second book titled “Thank God
I ... Stories of Appreciation,” which should be in
stores in January.

The Oct. 4 speaking engagement at Jovan’s
restaurant will take place at 12:10 p.m. Cost is $10.
Call the Sterling Heights Rotary for more information
at 979-6460. Simpson will appear again locally at
Macomb Community College in March.

Simpson’s book is available at Borders, Barnes and
Noble, and on Amazon.com. For further information on
her book, visit her Web site at pierettesimpson.com

It was
Wednesday, July 25th 1956. At 11:10pm on a dark and
foggy night, two great ocean liners, T/N Andrea
Doria and MV Stockholm, collided near
Nantucket, Massachusetts.

On
July 25,
1956, approaching the coast of
Nantucket,
Massachusetts bound for
New York City, the Andrea Doria
collided with the eastward-bound
SS Stockholm of the
Swedish-American Line in what became one
of history's most famous
maritime disasters. Struck in the side,
the list of the Andrea Doria left half
of her
lifeboats unusable, which might have
resulted in significant loss of life, but
improvements in communications and rapid
responses by other ships averted a disaster
similar in scale to the
Titanic disaster of 1912. Most
passengers and crew survived. On the Andrea
Doria, 1660 people were rescued and 46 died.
The evacuated luxury liner capsized and sank
the following morning.

Some of the following excerpts are from the book
"Lido Fleet" by Peter C. Kohler)

The
keel of the Yard No. 918, was laid on the No. 1
slipway at Ansaldo's Sestri Ponente yards on
February 9th, 1950. On May 22nd, 1951 the New York
Times reported on the progress of the
construction.

Towering almost one hundred feet above the
suburb of Sestri Ponente, the 637 foot long hull
is visible for miles, and the red bottom,
surmounted by many feet of black painted steel,
lends color to this otherwise drab and dreary
part of Genoa's port, from which the new liner,
flying the flag of the Italian Line, will depart
regularly next year. A visit to this birthplace
of such famous ships as the Rex, the
Roma and the Augustus, well
remembered in prewar days, is a noisy one. The
sight of the huge sides of the nearly completed
ship set off by countless squares of scaffolding
is embellished by the beats of riveting hammers,
the pounding of twenty-pound sledges.

To the whining of electric motors, large
prefabricated pieces weighing as much as four
tons, slide down to the construction site,
traveling approximately 300 yards from the
assembly area to a point directly above the
precise spot where they are to be installed in
the hull by one of 2,000 construction workers.

Planned for June 10th, 1951, it was six days later
when, blessed by His Eminence Cardinal Siri,
Archbishop of Genoa, and christened Andrea
Doria by Signora Giuseppina Saragat, wife of
the former Minister of the Merchant Marine,
Italy's first postwar North Atlantic liner slid
down the Ansaldo ways. By the 23rd, she was in the
fitting-out basin and expected to be ready "by
next summer". Decorating the interior of this ship
consumed another eighteen months and on November
6th, 1952 Andrea Doria left Sestri
Ponente for her preliminary engine trials. Nine
days later, amid reports of machinery problems,
her maiden voyage was rescheduled from December
14th, 1952 to January 14th, 1953.

On
acceptance trials from 3-9 December over the
Portofino-Chiappa measured mile, Andrea Doria
maintained a speed of 25.3 knots for six hours
with a top speed of 26.218 knots. Any earlier
defects had been corrected and her performance was
eminently satisfactory. Andrea Doria
returned to Genoa at 11:20pm on the 9th and was
formally handed over on the 19th, one of the
proudest days in Italia's history. The Italian
Line in designing this ship which was to mark the
rebirth of the Italian merchant marine after the
second World War, decided wisely not to compete
with the United States and Britain for size and
speed of their ships. Instead the Andrea Doria
was imbued with Italy's matchless heritage of
beauty, art and design. The 29,083 gross ton
ship, 696.5 feet long and 89.9 feet wide, of
course was no slowpoke midget. She was among the
fastest ships in the world. The Andrea Doria
had the capacity of 218 First Class, 320 Cabin
Class, 703 Tourist Class passengers and 563
Officers and crew.

On
January 14th, 1953 the Andrea Doria began
her maiden voyage and was given one of Genoa's
most heartfelt send-off. Named after the ports
favorite son and built by local shipwrights,
Andrea Doria was more than a line and
national flagship; she belonged to every Genoese.
The city, laid out like an amphitheater around the
port that gave it wealth and power, was the
setting for her 11:25am departure. Every quay,
breakwater and coastal road was thronged by
cheering spectators and Ansaldo shipyard workers
paused from building her sister ship to salute
their creation's maiden voyage.

As
beautiful as it was, the Andrea Doria is
said to have a curse. Many serious accidents
happened in the shipyard and when the Andrea
Doria and the Conte Biancamano saluted
each other in Naples by blowing their whistles,
the AndreaDoria's whistle got
stuck. It could not stop blowing and it became a
bad omen for some.

Most of the crossing was enjoyed in fine weather,
but conditions quickly deteriorated as Andrea
Doria made her final approach to New York.
What Captain Calamai characterized as one of the
worst storms in his 35 years at sea, started at
5:00am on January 22 with 45 mph winds and heavy
seas and reached its peak at 2:00pm with Force 9
winds.

Despite
the storm, the ship was only minutes late arriving
at New York early on January 23rd. The welcoming
delegation, which included New York Mayor Vincent
R. Impellitteri, boarded off Quarantine. With the
U.S.S. Osberg leading the escort, Andrea Doria
triumphantly steamed into the harbor and docked at
Pier 84 just after 10:00am.

"Lusitania" and
her sister,
RMS Mauretania, were built
during the time of a passenger liner race
between shipping lines based in Germany
and Great Britain, and were the fastest
liners of their day. At the beginning of
the twentieth century, the fastest
Atlantic liners were German, and the
British sought to win back the title.
Simultaneously, American financier
J.P. Morgan was planning to buy up all
the North Atlantic shipping lines,
including Britain's own
White Star Line. In 1903, Cunard
chairman
Lord Inverclyde took these threats to
his advantage and lobbied the
Balfour administration for a loan of
£2.6 million for the construction of
Lusitania and Mauretania,
providing they met
Admiralty specifications and Cunard
remain a wholly British company. The
British Government also agreed to pay
Cunard an annual subsidy of £150,000 for
maintaining both ships in a state of war
readiness, plus an additional £68,000 to
carry
Royal Mail.

Starting on
July 27,
1907, Lusitania underwent
preliminary and formal acceptance trials.
It was then she smashed all speed records
ever set in the history of the shipping
industry. Engineers discovered high speed
caused violent vibrations in the stern,
forcing the fitting of stronger bracing
parts. After these physical alterations,
she was finally delivered to Cunard on
August 26.

that week.

War

The Lusitania in a 1907 painting,
described as an "Auxiliary Cruiser
in Warfare".

Lusitania, like a number of
liners of the era, was part of a subsidy
scheme meant to convert ships into
Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMC) if
requisitioned by the government. This
involved structural provisions for
mounting deck guns.

At the onset of
World War I, the British
Admiralty considered Lusitania
for requisition as an armed merchant
cruiser; however, large liners such as
Lusitania consumed too much coal,
presented too large a target, and put at
risk large crews and were therefore deemed
inappropriate for the role. They were also
very distinctive. Smaller liners were used
as transports, instead.

The large liners were either not
requisitioned, or were used for troop
transport or as
hospital ships. Mauretania
became a troop transport while
Lusitania continued in her role as a
luxury liner built to convey people
between Great Britain and the United
States. For economic reasons,
Lusitania's transatlantic crossings
were reduced to once a month and boiler
room Number 4 was shut down. Maximum speed
was reduced to 21 knots (39 km/h), but
even then, Lusitania was the
fastest passenger liner on the North
Atlantic in commercial service, and 10
knots (18.5 km/h) faster than submarines.

Lusitania was scheduled to
arrive in Liverpool on
March 6,
1915. The Admiralty issued her
specific instructions on how to avoid
submarines. Despite a severe shortage of
destroyers, Admiral
Henry Oliver ordered HMS ships
Louis and
Laverlock to escort
Lusitania, and took the further
precaution of sending the
Q shipLyons to patrol Liverpool Bay.
Captain Dow of Lusitania, not
knowing whether Laverock and
Louis were actual Admiralty escorts or
a trap by the German navy, evaded the
escorts and arrived in Liverpool without
incident.[6]

On
April 17,
1915, Lusitania left Liverpool
on her 201st transatlantic voyage,
arriving in New York on
April 24. A group of German–Americans,
hoping to avoid controversy if
Lusitania were attacked by a U-boat,
discussed their concerns with a
representative of the German embassy. The
embassy decided to warn passengers not to
sail aboard Lusitania before her
next crossing.

The Imperial German embassy placed this
warning ad in 50 East Coast newspapers,
including those in New York. This ad was
prepaid and requested to be put on the
paper's travel page a full week before the
sailing date. However, even though the ads
were sent to newspapers in time for the
requested deadline, the State Department
of the United States intervened by raising
the specter of possible libel suits. The
ads, intended by the German government to
save American lives, were to appear in
only one newspaper, the
Des Moines Register. It has been
argued (without any historical evidence)
the actions taken by the U.S. government
were taken to ensure the U.S. would become
embroiled in WWI as the killing of
innocent women and children by Germany
would stir popular opinion against the
Central Powers.[7]

Last voyage and
sinking - Last departure

Lusitania departed
Pier 54 in New York on 1 May 1915. The
German Embassy in Washington had issued
this warning on
22 April.[8]

NOTICE!

TRAVELLERS intending to embark on
the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a
state of war exists between Germany and
her allies and Great Britain and her
allies; that the zone of war includes
the waters adjacent to the British
Isles; that, in accordance with formal
notice given by the Imperial German
Government, vessels flying the flag of
Great Britain, or any of her allies, are
liable to destruction in those waters
and that travellers sailing in the war
zone on the ships of Great Britain or
her allies do so at their own risk.

This warning was printed right next to
an advertisement for Lusitania's
return voyage.

The warning led to some agitation in
the press and worried the ship's
passengers and crew. The captain, an
experienced 58-year old sailor and
master named William "Bowler Bill"
Turner, tried to calm the passengers by
explaining that the ship's speed made it
safe.

Lusitania steamed out of New
York at noon that day, two hours behind
schedule due to a transfer of passengers
and crew from the recently requisitioned
Cameronia. Shortly after departure,
three German
spies were found on board, arrested,
and detained below decks.

The Lusitania at
end of the first leg of her maiden
voyage, New York City, September
1907. (*photo taken with a
panoramic lens.)

Lusitania's landfall on the
return leg of her transatlantic circuit
was
Fastnet Rock, off the southern tip of
Ireland. As the liner steamed across the
ocean, the British Admiralty was tracking
through wireless intercepts the movements
of the German submarine U-20,
commanded by Kapitänleutnant
Walther Schwieger and operating along
the west coast of Ireland and moving
south.

On
5 May and
6 May, U-20 sank three vessels
in the area of Fastnet Rock, and the Royal
Navy sent a warning to all British ships:
"Submarines active off the south coast of
Ireland". Captain Turner of Lusitania
was given the message twice on the evening
of the 6th, and took what he felt were
prudent precautions. He closed watertight
doors, posted double lookouts, ordered a
black-out, and had the lifeboats swung out
on their davits so they could be quickly
put into the water if need be. That same
evening, a Seamen's Charities fund concert
took place in the first class lounge.

At about 11:00, on Friday,
May 7, the Admiralty radioed another
warning, and Turner adjusted his heading
northeast, apparently thinking submarines
would be more likely to keep to the open
sea and so Lusitania would be safer
close to land.

U-20 was low on fuel and only
had three torpedoes left, and Schwieger
had decided to head for home. She was
moving at top speed on the surface at
13:00 when Schwieger spotted a vessel on
the horizon. He ordered U-20 to
dive and to take battle stations.

Sinking

Lusitania was at approximately
30 miles from
Cape Clear Island (Ireland) when she encountered
fog, and reduced speed to 18
knots.[9]
She was making for the port of Queenstown
(now
Cobh), Ireland, 70 kilometers (43.5
miles) from the Old Head of Kinsale when
the liner crossed in front of U-20
at 14:10.

Schwieger gave the order to fire, but
his quartermaster, Charles Voegele, would
not take part in an attack on women and
children, and refused to pass on the order
to the torpedo room — a decision for which
he was
court-martialed and served three years
in prison at
Kiel,[10]
although this story may be apocryphal. The
torpedo hit under the bridge, and was
followed by a much larger secondary
explosion in the starboard bow.
Schwieger's own log entries attest he only
fired one torpedo. Some doubt the validity
of this claim, contending the German
government subsequently doctored
Schwieger's log,[citation
needed] but accounts
from other U-20 crew members
confirm it. The torpedo struck just
forward of the bridge, sending a plume of
debris, steel plating and water upward and
knocking Lifeboat #5 off its davits.
Lusitania's wireless operator sent out
an immediate
SOS and Captain Turner gave the order
to abandon ship.

Water flooded the ship's starboard
longitudinal compartments, causing an
immediate 15 degrees starboard list.
Captain Turner tried turning the ship
toward the Irish coast in the hope of
beaching her, but the helm would not
respond. The torpedo had knocked out the
steam lines to the rudder, rendering the
controls useless. The ship's propellers
continued to drive the ship at 18 knots,
forcing water into her hull.

Lusitania's severe starboard
list complicated the launch of her
lifeboats — those to starboard swung out
too far to conveniently step aboard.[11]
While it was still possible to board the
lifeboats on the port side, lowering them
presented a different problem. As was
typical for the period, the hull plates of
the Lusitania were
riveted. As the lifeboats were
lowered, they dragged on these rivets,
which threatened to rip the boats apart.
Many lifeboats overturned while loading or
lowering, spilling passengers into the
sea; others were overturned by the ship's
motion when they hit the water. It was
claimed, without merit that some boats, by
the negligence of some officers, crashed
down onto the deck, crushing other
passengers, and sliding down towards the
bridge. This has been refuted in various
articles and by passenger and crew
testimony. Lusitania had 48
lifeboats, more than enough for all the
crew and passengers, but only six were
successfully lowered, all from the
starboard side.

Despite Turner's efforts to beach the
liner and reduce her speed, Lusitania
no longer answered the helm. There was
panic and disorder on the decks. Schwieger
had been observing this through U-20's
periscope, and by 14:25, he dropped the
periscope and headed out to sea.

Within six minutes, Lusitania's
forecastle began to go underwater. Her
list continued to worsen and 10 minutes
after the torpedoing, she had slowed
enough to start putting boats in the
water. On the port side, people panicked
and got into the boats, even though they
were swinging far in from the rails. On
the starboard side, the boats were hanging
several feet away from the sides. Crewmen
would lose their grip on the lifeboat
falls as the ship lurched over further,
sending passengers in the boats spilling
into the sea. Others would tip on launch
as some panicking people jumped into the
boat.

Captain Turner stayed in the bridge
until the water rushed upward and
destroyed the sliding door, sending him
out the imploded windows. He took the
ship's
logbook and
charts with him. He managed to get out
and find a floating chair in the water,
which he clung to. He was pulled
unconscious from the water but
miraculously survived after spending 3
hours in the water. Lusitania's bow
slammed into the bottom about 100 m (300
ft) below at a shallow angle, given her
forward momentum as she sank. Along the
way, some
boilers exploded, including one that
caused the third funnel to collapse, with
the remaining funnels proceeding to snap
off soon after. Captain Turner's last
navigational fix had been only two minutes
before the torpedoing, and he was able to
remember the ship's
speed and
bearing at the moment of sinking. This
was accurate enough to locate the wreck
after the war. The ship travelled about
two miles (3 km) from the time of the
torpedoing to her final resting place,
leaving a trail of debris and people
behind.

Lusitania sank in 18 minutes,
8 miles (13 km) off of the Old Head of
Kinsale. 1,198 people died with her,
including almost a hundred children.[12]
The bodies of many of the victims were
buried at either Lusitania's
destination, Queenstown, or the Church of
St. Multose in Kinsale, but many other
bodies were never recovered and remain
entombed in the wreck.

Political
consequences

Of the 197 Americans aboard, 128 lost
their lives. There was massive outrage in
Britain and America. The British felt the
Americans had to declare war on Germany.
U.S. Secretary of State
William Jennings Bryan, fearing the US
would declare war, resigned from the
Cabinet in protest; however, President
Woodrow Wilson still did not want the
country to get involved in a European
dispute because the American population
(many of whom were German-American) did
not want to be involved in a war.[citation
needed] Instead of
declaring war, he sent a formal protest to
Germany. Wilson was bitterly criticised in
Britain as a coward.

Although unrestricted submarine warfare
continued at a varying pace into the
summer, on
August 19
U-24 sank the White Star liner
Arabic, with the loss of 44
passengers and crew. Three of the dead
were Americans, and President Wilson
angrily protested through German
diplomatic channels.

On
August 27, the Kaiser imposed severe
restrictions on U‐boats attacks against
large passenger vessels. On
September 18,
1915, he called off unrestricted
submarine warfare completely.

Munich metalworker Karl Goetz struck
commemorative medallions in August 1915 to
satirize what he saw as the greed of the
Cunard Line and the foolishness of
contraband he suspected was being smuggled
with the help of US neutrality. The
original medal has the incorrect date of
5 May
1915 on it. Some time thereafter
British intelligence obtained a copy and
saw a propaganda opportunity as the medal
apparently celebrated the sinking as a
premeditated crime. The incorrect date was
taken as proof of this theory and combined
with possibly apocryphal German press
reports touting the triumph. British
propagandists precommissioned
Selfridges of
London to make 250–300,000 copies of
the medal in an attractive case claiming
to be an exact copy of the German medal,
which then were sold for a shilling to
benefit the
British Red Cross and other charities.
Belatedly realizing his mistake Goetz
issued a corrected medal with the date of
7 May. The Bavarian government
suppressed the medal and ordered their
confiscation in April 1917. The original
German medals (fewer than 500 were struck)
can most easily be distinguished from the
English copies because the date is in
German; the English version spells 'May'
rather than 'Mai'. After the war Goetz
expressed his regret his work had been the
cause of increasing anti‐German feelings,
but it remains one of the most celebrated
propaganda acts of all time.

Contraband
and second explosion

The telegraph on the wreck of
Lusitania

Lusitania was carrying small
arms ammunition, which would not have been
explosive.[13]
Under the "cruiser rules", the Germans
could sink a civilian vessel only after
guaranteeing the safety of all the
passengers. Since Lusitania (like all
British merchantmen) was under
instructions from the British Admiralty to
report the sighting of a German submarine,
and indeed to attempt to ram the ship if
it surfaced to board and inspect her, she
was acting as a
naval auxiliary, and was thus exempt
from this requirement and a legitimate
military target. By international law, the
presence (or absence) of military cargo
was irrelevant.

Recent expeditions to the wreck have
shown her holds are intact and show no
evidence of internal explosion. The
question remains, however: if ammunition
and alleged "secret" cargo did not cause
the violent second explosion, what did?

In 1993, Dr
Robert Ballard, famous explorer who
discovered
Titanic, conducted an in-depth
exploration of the wreck of Lusitania.
Ballard found Light had been mistaken in
his identification of a gaping hole in the
ship's side. To explain the second
explosion, Ballard advanced the theory of
a coal-dust explosion. He believed dust in
the bunkers would have been thrown into
the air by the vibration from the
explosion; the resulting cloud would have
been ignited by a spark, causing the
second explosion. In the years since he
first advanced this theory, it has been
argued this is a near-impossibility.

Critics of this theory say coal dust
would have been too damp to have been
stirred into the air by the torpedo impact
in explosive concentrations; additionally,
the coal bunker where the torpedo struck
would have been flooded almost immediately
by the influx of seawater which poured
through the damaged hull plates.

More recently, marine forensic
investigators have become convinced an
explosion in the ship's steam-generating
plant is a far more plausible explanation
for the second explosion. There were very
few survivors from the forward two boiler
rooms, but they did report the ship's
boilers did not explode; they were also
under extreme duress in those moments
after the torpedo's impact, however.
Leading Fireman Albert Martin later
testified he thought the torpedo actually
entered the boiler room and exploded
between a group of boilers, which was a
physical impossibility. It is also known
the forward boiler room filled with steam,
and steam pressure feeding the turbines
dropped dramatically following the second
explosion. These point toward a failure,
of one sort or another, in the ship's
steam-generating plant. It is possible the
failure came, not directly from one of the
Scotch boilers in boiler room no. 1, but
rather in the high-pressure steam lines to
the turbines.

In any case, most researchers and
historians agree a steam explosion is far
more likely than clandestine
high-explosives as the reason for the
second explosion. It must be noted,
however, it is quite likely the original
torpedo damage alone, striking the ship on
the starboard coal bunker of boiler room
no. 1, would have sent the ship to the
bottom without the aid of the second
explosion. This first blast was able to
cause, on its own, off-center flooding of
a serious nature. The deficiencies of the
ship's original watertight bulkhead design
exacerbated the situation, as did the many
portholes which had been left open to aid
in ventilation.

Deliberate
action by the British admiralty?

Some historians have theorised that
Great Britain, in particular
First Lord of the Admiralty
Winston Churchill, conspired to have
Lusitania sunk to draw the United
States into the First World War. However,
there is some argument against this. It
was well known by British, American, and
German governments at the time that if the
Americans entered the war, they would
divert war materials and ammunition toward
raising and equipping their own army for
fighting, rather than toward keeping the
British going in their war effort. Indeed,
U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing,
while serving as Assistant to then
Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan,
had prior to the sinking prepared a
memorandum clearly outlining why American
involvement in the war would be
detrimental to the Allies. Similarly, two
days after the sinking, the British
Ambassador to the United States, Sir
Cecil Spring-Rice, telegraphed London
advising that it was in Britain's "main
interest to preserve U.S. as a base of
supplies." It would take quite some time
for the United States to train and equip
its army.Recent
developments

The wreck is owned by New Mexico diver
and businessman
F. Gregg Bemis Jr, who bought it in
1968 from former business partners, one of
whom had previously bought it in 1967 for
£1000 from the Liverpool & London War
Risks Insurance Association.[14][15]

The
Irish Government in 1995 declared the
wreck a heritage site under the
National Monuments Act. This protects
the wreck for 100 years. One reason for
this is attributed to the presumed
presence of art treasures in lead
containers located in the hold believed to
have been carried by Sir
Hugh Lane.

In June 2005, Bemis won a High Court
challenge with the Irish State and is now
in a position to legally inspect and carry
out a $2 million research expedition on
the wreck. Mr Bemis wants to send divers
down to prove his theory the second
explosion was caused by munitions being
carried. The Supreme Court upheld the High
Court's decision in a judgment delivered
on
March 27,
2007.

A dive team from
Cork Sub Aqua Club, under license,
made the first known discovery of
munitions aboard in 2006. These include
15,000 rounds of 0.303 (7.7×56mmR) caliber
rifle ammunition in boxes in the bow
section of the ship. The 0.303 round was
used by the British army in all of their
battlefield rifles and machine guns. The
find was photographed but left
in situ under the terms of the
license.

Bemis also hopes to salvage components
from the wreck for display in museums. Any
fine art recovered, such as the
Rubens rumoured to be on board, will
remain in the ownership of the Irish
Government.

On
March 28,
2007, the Irish Times reported
the Irish Government will grant Bemis a
licence to carry out research on the
vessel, but the Supreme Court's decision
makes it clear a further licence
application would be required by Bemis.

^ Des
Hickey and Gus Smith, Seven Days to
Disaster: The Sinking of the Lusitania,
1981, William Collins,
ISBN 0-00-216882-0. However, Diana
Preston writes in her book cited in
the list of sources for this article
that "the details of what really
happened remain tantalisingly obscure.
None of the surviving crew members of
the U-20 seems ever to have referred
to the incident. There is no trace of
his court martial papers." However,
"his story is currently being
researched in Strasbourg for inclusion
in a dictionary of Alsatian
biographies". Preston also writes that
Voegele was an electrician on board
U20 and not a quartermaster. See also
Blog on BBC docu-drama Lusitania

^
Robert Ballard, Exploring the
Lusitania. This number is cited,
probably to include the German spies
detained below decks. The Cunard
Steamship Company announced the
official death toll of 1,195 on
March 1,
1916.

^
Included in this cargo were 4,200,000
rounds of Remington 0.303 rifle
cartridges, 1250 cases of 3 inch
(76 mm)
fragmentation shells, and eighteen
cases of fuses. (All were listed on
the ship's two-page manifest, filed
with U.S. Customs after she had
departed New York on
May 1.) However, the materials
listed on the cargo manifest were
small arms and the physical size of
this cargo would have been quite
small. These munitions were also
proven to be non-explosive in bulk,
and were clearly marked as such. It
was perfectly legal under American
shipping regulations for her to carry
these; experts agreed they were not to
blame for the second explosion.
Allegations the ship was carrying more
controversial cargo, such as fine
aluminium powder, concealed as cheese
on her cargo manifests, have never
been proven.

The
RMSTitanic was a
BritishOlympic-class
ocean liner, owned by the
White Star Line,[1]
that struck an
iceberg on
April 14,
1912 and sank on the morning
of
April 15,
1912 during her maiden
voyage across the
Atlantic Ocean to
New York. Estimates vary,
but approximately 1,520 people
perished in the sinking which
ranks as one of the worst
peacetime maritime disasters in
history.[2]
The resulting
media frenzy, the discovery
of the wreck in 1985, and the
box office successes of three
major films and one broadway
musical have perpetuated the
fame. The great loss of life
resulted in improved safety
standards at sea, and affected
many aspects of maritime law.

Sunk struck iceberg at 23:40
(ship's time) on
14 April
1912
sank the next day at 2:20. After
seventy-three years, the wreck was
discovered on
September 1,
1985, 12,500 feet (3,800 m)
beneath the North Atlantic at 41
degrees 43' 32"N, 49 degrees 56'
49"W.

White Star ordered three
ships to provide a weekly
express service, with the goal
of dominating the
transatlantic travel
business. The
Olympic and Titanic at
882 feet long were larger, but
not as fast as the Cunard
liners. The third ship was
slightly larger and delivered
later due to the modifications
after the loss of the Titanic,
the Gigantic was renamed
prior to launching to
HMHS Britannic. These
larger ships offered greater
amenities than the Cunard sister
ships.

Titanic was
882 feet 9 inches (269 m) long
and 92 feet 6 inches (28 m) at
the beam.[4]
She had a
Gross Register Tonnage of
46,328 tons,
and a height from the water line
to the boat deck of 60 feet
(18 m).[5]
Her three
propellers were driven by
two four-cylinder,
triple-expansion, inverted
reciprocating
steam engines and one
low-pressure
Parsons turbine.[6]
Steam was provided by
25 double-ended and
4 single-ended Scotch-type
boilers fired by 159 coal
burning
furnaces that made possible
a top speed of 23 knots
(43 km/h).[7]
Only three of the four 63 foot
(19 m) tall
funnels were functional; the
fourth, which served only as a
vent, was added to make the ship
look more impressive.[8]Titanic could carry a
total of 3,547 passengers and
crew and given the
prefix
RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) as
she carried
mail.

She was
thought by The Shipbuilder
magazine to be "practically
unsinkable."[9]Titanic had a
double-bottom hull,
containing 44 tanks for
boiler water and
ballast to keep the ship
safely trimmed and balanced at
sea.[10]
(Later ships also had a
double-walled hull). Titanic
exceeded the
lifeboat standard, with
twenty lifeboats, though not
enough for all passengers.
Titanic was divided into
sixteen compartments. Dividing
doors were held up in the open
position by
electro-magnetic latches
that could be closed by a switch
on the ship's bridge and by a
float system installed on the
door itself.[11

Titanic was
882 feet 9 inches (269 m) long
and 92 feet 6 inches (28 m) at
the beam.[4]
She had a
Gross Register Tonnage of
46,328 tons,
and a height from the water line
to the boat deck of 60 feet
(18 m).[5]
Her three
propellers were driven by
two four-cylinder,
triple-expansion, inverted
reciprocating
steam engines and one
low-pressure
Parsons turbine.[6]
Steam was provided by
25 double-ended and
4 single-ended Scotch-type
boilers fired by 159 coal
burning
furnaces that made possible
a top speed of 23 knots
(43 km/h).[7]
Only three of the four 63 foot
(19 m) tall
funnels were functional; the
fourth, which served only as a
vent, was added to make the ship
look more impressive.[8]Titanic could carry a
total of 3,547 passengers and
crew and given the
prefix
RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) as
she carried
mail.

She was
thought by The Shipbuilder
magazine to be "practically
unsinkable."[9]Titanic had a
double-bottom hull,
containing 44 tanks for
boiler water and
ballast to keep the ship
safely trimmed and balanced at
sea.[10]
(Later ships also had a
double-walled hull). Titanic
exceeded the
lifeboat standard, with
twenty lifeboats, though not
enough for all passengers.
Titanic was divided into
sixteen compartments. Dividing
doors were held up in the open
position by
electro-magnetic latches
that could be closed by a switch
on the ship's bridge and by a
float system installed on the
door itself.[11]

In 2007,
scientists using
DNA analysis
identified the body of
an unknown child
recovered after the
incident as
Sidney Leslie Goodwin,
a 19-month-old boy from
England. Goodwin, along
with his parents and
five siblings, boarded
in
Southampton, England
as third-class
passengers.[38]

On the night of
April 14, at 11:40
p.m., the Titanic struck
an iceberg; just under
three hours later, at
2:20 AM, on
April 15,
1912 the ship sank.[39]
The United States Senate
investigation reported
that 1,517[40]
people perished in the
accident, while the
British investigation
has the number at 1,490.[41]
Regardless, the disaster
ranks as one of the
worst peacetime maritime
disasters in
history, and is by far
the best known. The
media frenzy about
the Titanic's
famous victims, the
legends about what
happened on board the
ship, the resulting
changes to
maritime law, Walter
Lord's 1955 non-fiction
account
A Night to Remember,
the discovery of the
wreck in 1985 by a team
led by
Robert Ballard and
Jean-Louis Michel,
and the box office
success of the 1997 film
Titanic (the
highest-grossing film
in history as of 2007)
have sustained the
Titanic's fame

Contributing factor

Speed

The conclusion of the
British Inquiry into the
sinking was “that the
loss of the said ship
was due to collision
with an iceberg, brought
about by the excessive
speed at which the ship
was being navigated."[42]
At the time of the
collision, it is thought
that the Titanic was at
her normal cruising
speed of about 22 knots,[43]
which was less than her
top speed of around 24
knots. It was then
common (but not
universal) practice to
maintain normal speed in
areas where icebergs
were expected.[44]
It was assumed that any
iceberg large enough to
damage the ship would be
seen in sufficient time
to be avoided. After the
sinking, the British
Board of Trade
introduced regulations
instructing vessels to
moderate their speed if
they were expecting to
encounter icebergs. The
allegation that
J. Bruce Ismay
instructed or encouraged
Captain
Edward Smith to
increase speed in order
to make an early
landfall is a common
feature in popular
representations of the
disaster. There is no
reliable evidence for
this having happened.[45

Lifeboats

There were not enough
lifeboats for all of
the people on board. The
most recent law required
a minimum of sixteen
lifeboats with capacity
for 962 occupants for
ships weighing 10,000
tons or larger. This law
was enacted in 1894 when
the largest emigrant
steamer was the
12,952-ton
Lucania;
eighteen years later,
the 52,000-ton
Titanic had room for
3,547 passengers.
Titanic had four
extra collapsible
lifeboats, bringing
total lifeboat capacity
to 1,178.[46]

In the busy
North Atlantic
sea lanes, it was
expected that the
emergency response from
other vessels would be
rapid and the lifeboats
would only be used to
ferry people between
vessels, with boats from
the rescuing vessels
available as well. Full
provisioning of
lifeboats was not
considered necessary. In
anticipation of stricter
standards from the
British Board of Trade,
davits capable of
handling up to four
boats per pair of davits
were designed by
Alexander Carlisle and
installed to give a
total potential capacity
of 64 boats.[47];
however, the additional
boats were never fitted.
Harold Sanderson, Vice
President of
International Mercantile
Marine denied that
this was done to reduce
costs during the British
Inquiry.[48]

Swifter action might
have saved lives. After
the collision, one hour
was spent evaluating
damage and making
decisions before
lowering the first
lifeboat. Two teams, one
on each side of the ship
efficiently launched all
sixteen lifeboats in
eighty minutes. However,
some boats were launched
with far less than
capacity, the most
notable being lifeboat
#1, with a capacity of
forty, launched with
only twelve people
aboard. Included in the
first launched were
lifeboats 6, 7, and 8,
each of which were
equipped to hold
sixty-five but were
launched with only
twenty-eight on board
each boat.[49]
It is speculated that
fear of small boats and
over confidence in the
ship's ability to remain
afloat led to delays in
boarding the lifeboats.[original
research?]

Actions taken on bridge

It is possible that
if Titanic had
not altered its course,
but reversed its engines
and had run head-on into
the iceberg, the damage
would only have affected
the first or first two
compartments. The ship
had three propellers;
reciprocating
steam engines drove
the outboard propellers,
and a
steam turbine drove
the centre propeller.
The reciprocating
engines were reversible,
but the turbine was not;
however, reversing the
rotation was not
instantaneous and may
not have been possible
in the short time
between sighting and
impact.[51]

The liner
SS Arizona
had such a head-on
collision with an
iceberg in 1879 and,
although badly damaged,
managed to make it to
St John's, Newfoundland
for repairs, though
Titanic's speed was
higher than Arizona's.

Faults in construction
or substandard materials

Hull breaching
with failed rivets

Soon after the
discovery of the wreck
site, scientists, naval
architects, and marine
engineers began
questioning how faulty
design features and
poorly manufactured
materials may have
played a role in her
sinking. Numerous ideas
have been suggested,
including poorly
designed safety doors,
brittle steel and the
variable quality of
rivets that held the
hull plating together.[52]
However, it is more
likely that a
combination of these
issues and other
circumstances were major
contributing factors to
the sinking. It is
possible that if the
watertight bulkheads had
completely sealed the
ship's compartments, the
ship would have stayed
afloat (these only went
3 m above the
waterline).[citation
needed]

Titanic's hull
plates were held
together by
rivets, metal pins
which clamp structural
components together. In
1912, welding technology
was still in its
infancy; shipbuilders
continued to use
riveting almost
exclusively for the next
20 years. Modern day
forensic metallurgists
suggest that the rivets
of the Titanic
were of substandard
quality, resulting in
weak points that led to
structural failure
during the collision.[53][54][55]
These weaknesses were
not detectable with the
inspection techniques of
the early 20th century.

Long-term implications

The sinking of the
RMS Titanic was a
factor that influenced
later maritime
practices, ship design,
and the seafaring
culture. Changes
included the
establishment of the
International Ice Patrol,
a requirement for
twenty-four-hour radio
watch keeping on
foreign-going passenger
ships, and new
regulations related to
lifeboats.[citation
needed]

International Ice Patrol

The Titanic
disaster led to the
convening of the first
International Convention
for the Safety of Life
at Sea (SOLAS) in
London, on
12 November
1913. On
30 January
1914, a treaty was
signed by the conference
that resulted in the
formation and
international funding of
the
International Ice Patrol,
an agency of the
United States Coast
Guard that to the
present day monitors and
reports on the location
of North
Atlantic Ocean
icebergs that could pose
a threat to
transatlantic sea lane
traffic. It was also
agreed in the new
regulations that all
passenger vessels would
have sufficient
lifeboats for everyone
on board, that
appropriate safety
drills would be
conducted, and that
radio communications on
passenger ships would be
operated all day along
with a secondary power
supply, so as not to
miss distress calls. In
addition, it was agreed
that the firing of red
rockets from a ship must
be interpreted as a
distress signal (red
rockets launched from
the Titanic prior
to sinking were mistaken
by nearby vessels as
celebratory fireworks,
delaying rescue). This
treaty was scheduled to
go into effect on
1 July
1915 but was
upstaged by
World War I.

Ship design changes

The sinking of
Titanic changed the
way passenger ships were
designed. Many existing
ships, such as the
Olympic, were
refitted for increased
safety. Besides
increasing the number of
lifeboats on board,
improvements included
reinforcing the hull and
increasing the height of
the watertight
bulkheads. The
bulkheads on Titanic
extended 10 feet (3 m)
above the
waterline; after
Titanic sank, the
bulkheads on other ships
were extended higher to
make compartments fully
watertight. While
Titanic had a
double bottom, she
did not have a
double hull; after
her sinking, new ships
were designed with
double hulls; also, the
double bottoms of other
ships, including the
Olympic,[56]
were extended up the
sides of their hulls,
above their waterlines,
to give them double
hulls.

Alternative theories and
myths

As with many
famous events, many
alternative theories
about the sinking of
Titanic have
appeared over the years.
Theories that it was not
an
iceberg that sank
the ship or that a curse
caused the disaster have
been popular reading in
newspapers and books.
Titanic experts have
debunked most of these
theories by showing that
the evidence on which
these theories are based
is inaccurate or
incomplete.

Use of SOS

The sinking of the
Titanic was not
the first time the
internationally
recognised
Morse code distress
signal "SOS"
was used. The SOS signal
was first proposed at
the International
Conference on Wireless
Communication at Sea in
Berlin in
1906. It was
ratified by the
international community
in 1908 and had been in
widespread use since
then.[citation
needed]
The SOS signal was,
however, rarely used by
British wireless
operators, who preferred
the older
CQD code.[citation
needed]
First Wireless Operator
Jack Phillips began
transmitting CQD until
Second Wireless Operator
Harold Bride
suggested,
half-jokingly, "Send
SOS; it's the new call,
and this may be your
last chance to send it".[cite
this quote]
Phillips, who was to
perish in the disaster,
then began to
intersperse SOS with the
traditional CQD call.

Novel's foreshadowing

In
1898,
Morgan Robertson
published a book called
Futility in
which a ship called
Titan sinks after
colliding with an
iceberg[57].
There are striking
similarities between the
'Titan' and the Titanic'
disaster such as both
ships sank in the
North Atlantic Ocean
during the month of
April, both ships did
not have enough
lifeboats and were
allegedly travelling at
an excessive speed, and
both were considered the
largest ship of their
time.[58]
However, there are also
major differences
between the story and
reality which suggest no
real foreshadowing (for
example, the Titan has
auxiliary sails and also
sank a ship beforehand).

Other myths

A similar legend
states that the
Titanic was given
hull number 390904
(which, when seen in a
mirror or written using
mirror writing,
looks like "NO
POPE"). This is a
myth.[59]Titanic's yard
number was 401;
Olympic's was 400.
Another myth states that
Titanic was
carrying a cursed
Egyptian
mummy, often named
Princess of Amen-Ra.
The mummy, nicknamed "Shipwrecker"
after changing hands
several times and
causing many terrible
things to happen to each
of its owners, allegedly
exacts its final revenge
by sinking the famous
ship.[60]
Another myth says that
the bottle of
champagne used in
christening Titanic
did not break on the
first try, which in sea
lore is said to be bad
luck for a ship. In
fact, Titanic was
not christened on
launching, as it was
White Star Line's
custom not to do so.[61]

Rediscovery

For seventy years
after the disaster, it
was widely believed that
the Titanic had sunk
intact. Although there
were several passengers
who insisted that the
ship had broken in two
as it sank (including
Jack Thayer, who
even had another
passenger draw a set of
sketches depicting the
sinking for him[62]),
the inquiries believed
the statements of the
ship's officers and
first-class passengers
that it had sunk in one
piece.

In 1985, when the
wreck was discovered by
Jean-Louis Michel of
IFREMER,
Robert Ballard and
his crew, they found
that the ship broke in
two as it sank. It was
theorised that as the
Titanic sank, the
stern rose out of
the water. It supposedly
rose so high that the
unsupported weight
caused the ship to break
into two pieces, the
split starting at the
upper deck. This became
the commonly accepted
theory.

In 2005, new
evidence suggested that
in addition to the
expected side damage,
the ship also had
sustained damage to the
bottom of the
hull (keel).
This new evidence seemed
to support a less
popular theory that the
crack that split the
Titanic in two
started at the keel
plates. Jack Thayer’s
sketches support this
proposition.

The most notable
discovery the team made
was that the ship had
broken in two, the stern
section lying 1,970 feet
(600 m) from the bow
section and both facing
in opposite directions.
There had been
conflicting witness
accounts of whether the
ship broke apart on the
surface or not, and both
the American and British
inquiries found that the
ship sank intact. Up
until the discovery of
the wreck, it was
generally assumed the
ship did not break
apart. In 2005, a theory
was presented that a
portion of Titanic's
bottom broke off right
before the ship broke in
two.[65]
The theory was conceived
after an expedition
sponsored by
The History Channel
examined the three hull
pieces.[66]

The bow section
had embedded itself more
than 60 feet (18 m) into
the silt on the ocean
floor. Although parts of
the hull had buckled,
the bow was mostly
intact, as the water
inside had equalised
with the increasing
water pressure. The
stern section was in
much worse condition. As
the stern section sank,
water pushed out the air
inside tearing apart the
hull and decks. The
speed at which the stern
hit the ocean floor
caused even more damage.
Surrounding the wreck is
a large debris field,
with pieces of the ship
(including a large
amount of coal),
furniture, dinnerware
and personal items
scattered over one
square mile (2.6 km²).
Softer materials, like
wood and carpet, were
devoured by undersea
organisms, as were human
remains.

Later exploration
of the vessel's lower
decks, as chronicled in
the book Ghosts of
the Titanic by
Charles Pellegrino,
showed that much of the
wood from Titanic's
staterooms was still
intact. A new theory has
been put forth that much
of the wood from the
upper decks was not
devoured by undersea
organisms but rather
broke free of its
fixings and floated
away. This is supported
by some eyewitness
testimony from the
survivors.

In
April 1996,
RMS Titanic Inc.,
which holds salvage
rights to the Titanic
organized a cruise from
Boston, Massachusetts
to the site of Titanic's
sinking. The company
intended to bring to the
ocean's surface a small
section of Titanic's
hull among other relics.
Among those on board the
cruise ship was 99-year
old Titanic survivor
Edith Eileen Haisman.
Ms. Haisman was fifteen
years old when the ship
sank and had vivid
memories from that
night.[67]

Ballard's book,
Return to Titanic,
published by the
National Geographic
Society, includes
photographs showing the
deterioration of the
promenade deck and
damage caused by
submersibles landing on
the ship. The
mast has almost
completely deteriorated,
and repeated accusations[attribution
needed]
were made that it had
been stripped of its
bell and brass light by
salvagers. Ballard's
own original discovery
images however, clearly
show that the bell was
never actually on the
mast - it was recovered
from the sea floor.[citation
needed]
The French submersible
Nautile
allegedly is responsible
for crashing into the
crow's nest and causing
it to fall from the
mast.[citation
needed]
Even the memorial plaque
left by Ballard on his
second trip to the wreck
was alleged to have been
removed; Ballard
replaced the plaque in
2004. Recent
expeditions, notably by
James Cameron, have
been diving on the wreck
to learn more about the
site and explore
previously unexplored
parts of the ship before
Titanic decays
completely.

In 1993, a
French administrator
in the Office of
Maritime Affairs of the
Ministry of Equipment,
Transportation, and
Tourism awarded RMS
Titanic Inc's
predecessor title to the
relics recovered in
1987.

In a motion filed
on
12 February
2004 RMS Titanic
Inc. requested that the
District Court enter an
order awarding it "title
to all the artifacts
(including portions of
the hull) which are the
subject of this action
pursuant to the Law of
Finds" or, in the
alternative, a salvage
award in the amount of
$225 million. RMS
Titanic Inc. excluded
from its motion any
claim for an award of
title to the objects
recovered in 1987, but
it did request that the
district court declare
that, based on the
French administrative
action, "the artifacts
raised during the 1987
expedition are
independently owned by
RMST." Following a
hearing, the district
court entered an order
dated
2 July
2004, in which it
refused to grant
comity and recognize
the 1993 decision of the
French administrator,
and rejected RMS Titanic
Inc's claim that it
should be awarded title
to the items recovered
since 1993 under the
Maritime Law of Finds.

RMS Titanic Inc.
appealed to the
United States Court of
Appeals. In its
decision of
31 January
2006[71]
the court recognized
"explicitly the
appropriateness of
applying maritime
salvage law to historic
wrecks such as that of
Titanic" and
denied the application
of the Maritime Law of
Finds. The court also
ruled that the district
court lacked
jurisdiction over the
"1987 artifacts", and
therefore vacated that
part of the court's
2 July
2004 order. In other
words, according to this
decision, RMS Titanic
Inc. has ownership title
to the objects awarded
in the French decision
(valued $16.5 million
earlier) and continues
to be salvor-in-possession
of Titanic wreck.
The Court of Appeals
remanded the case to the
District Court to
determine the salvage
award ($225 million
requested by RMS Titanic
Inc.).[72]

Last living survivor

Millvina Dean, who
was only two months
old at the time of the
sinking, is the only
living survivor of the
Titanic. Currently
ninety-six years old,
she has remained
active in
Titanic-related events
and lives in
Southampton, England.

Recent survivors' deaths

100th anniversary

On
15 April
2012, the
one-hundredth
anniversary of the
sinking of Titanic
is planned to be
commemorated around the
world. By that date, the
Titanic Quarter in
Belfast is planned to
have been completed. The
area will be regenerated
and a signature memorial
project unveiled to
celebrate Titanic
and her links with
Belfast, the city that
built the ship.[73]

^ "Scientists
Finally Solve
Titanic Mystery",
Associated Press,
August 3,
2007. Retrieved
on
2007-07-21. "Buried
in a small plot in a
Halifax cemetery,
the baby was a
poignant symbol of
the children who
perished on the
vessel when it sank
in 1912. In 2002, it
seemed the mystery
was solved; Canadian
researchers said he
was a
thirteen-month-old
Finnish boy.
However, on Tuesday,
a lead researcher
said the child was
actually the
19-month-old boy
from England."

^(1912-07-30)
Report on the loss
of the S.S. Titanic,
69-70. Retrieved on
2007-01-21. “The
most widely reported
loss of life was
1,523. The inquiry
was presented with
twenty-six questions
by the Board of
Trade. Question 21
asked how many were
saved (rather than
how many were
killed). A table in
the answer gives
"total on board
saved" as 711 out of
2,201, implying that
1490 were killed.
The answer also
explains that 712
were rescued from
Titanic's boats
by the crew of
Carpathia, but
that one person died
before Carpathia
arrived at New York,
leaving 711
survivors.”

On the
morning of January 23, 1909 the RMS REPUBLIC had left New York
harbor and was bound for the Mediterranean with 742 vacationing
passengers and crew. What the contents of her hold contains is
still a mystery!
The White Star ship was built for the carriage trade with on
board opulence and comfort, rather than speed. On the six-day
crossing, passengers would spend their time dining in style and
drinking the best wines, dancing to the music of fine orchestras
and being served by an attentive staff of servants. She was a
cruise ship intending to ply the sunny Mediterranean sea for two
months.
Passengers could enjoy something new aboard ships. A newspaper
printed daily aboard with news and stock reports copied by the
ship’s wireless operator. The wireless aboard was thought of as a
luxury more than a safety device.
In the hours before dawn, the ship encountered a fog
bank. Captain Inman Sealby ordered a small reduction in the
speed. He was in open sea in the Nantucket traffic lane south of
Nantucket Island. The ship was sounding the fog signal in
accordance with International Rules of the Road. At about 5:30
a.m. an answering fog signal was heard off the port bow. The
Captain immediately ordered full astern and the helm to hard
a-port, while signaling his intention with his foghorn. Out of the
fog appeared the bow of a ship. The oncoming ship hit REPUBLIC
amidships killing three passengers as they slept. The ships soon
drifted apart and out of sight in the fog. Water was pouring in
to the engine and boiler rooms killing the lights and soon the
ship was listing.
The crash awakened the young Marconi wireless operator, Jack
Binns, who discovered his cabin was in shambles. The wireless
shack had its roof torn away by the impact. As there was no power,
he hooked up the emergency batteries and sent out a distress
call. He sent the newly agreed upon Marconi co. signal “CQD”. It
was the first use in such a large life-threatening situation, of
this abbreviation. CQ is a general call to all listening and the
D stood for distress. By the time of the TITANIC sinking in 1912,
it had been replaced by the new international distress signal
dubbed SOS because it resembled the Morse characters, however the
dots and dashes are run together making one character.
Jack Irwin, the operator on duty at the Marconi Station on
nearby Nantucket picked up the distress signal and relayed it so
the world was soon informed. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service,
forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched two cutters, SENECA
from New York City and GRESHAM from Boston to the scene. The
BALTIC, LaLORRAINE, salvage tug CITY OF EVERERETT and the Revenue
Cutter ACUSHNET from Woods Hole upon hearing the distress call all
rushed towards the location of the collision.
This was the first demonstration of Marconi’s Wireless ability
to aid victims of disasters at sea. It would be another three
years before the United States would require passenger ships to
carry wireless. It is interesting to note that the other operator
at Nantucket was a recent trainee of Marconi’s named David
Sarnoff, who went on to become the President of the Radio
Corporation of America (RCA), which later absorbed the American
Marconi company.
Meanwhile the Italian ship FLORIDA had suffered her bow pushed
in and three crewmen killed in the collision. Fortunately the
FLORIDA wasn’t leaking as the damage was above the water line.
She was on her way from Italy with 900 Italian immigrants. As a
result of the earthquake on December 28, 1908 in Messina, Italy,
the Italian Government arranged steamship transportation for many
of the traumatized survivors to go to America in steerage, whether
they wanted to or not! There were more than 200,000 dead and
countless others left homeless. The ship’s Captain was only 28
years old, but performed admirably in the circumstance he found
himself.
The FLORIDA returned to the scene of the accident and was able to
take aboard all of the REPUBLIC’s passengers and most of the crew.
This was not an easy task at sea for the smaller damaged FLORIDA.
Meanwhile Jack Binns, the REPUBLIC’s wireless operator kept in
communication with the White Star Liner BALTIC. By noon the next
day, the BALTIC was about 10 miles from the disaster scene. The
fog remained heavy so the ship was moving very slowly with extra
lookouts on duty. It was arranged by wireless for the ships to
signal via small signaling bombs. Ship’s chronometers were
synchronized via wireless and crews listened attentively for the
noise. Nothing was heard until they down to their last bomb. The
eight left on the REPUBLIC formed a circle looking out and
listening intently. Two thought they heard a faint noise so the
course was sent to the BALTIC and in about 15 minutes their
foghorn was heard. By this time Jack Binns had been at his post
at the wireless with no food and no heat, day and night until
ordered off the sinking ship by the Captain shortly before its
final plunge.
The French Government gave Jack Binns a medal for his heroism
as wireless operator. In 1912 he was slated for a post on the
TITANIC, but love intervened to save him. He had just gotten
married and didn’t wish to leave his new wife to go to sea again.
The White Star Liner BALTIC finally arrived, the passengers were
again transferred, this time to the BALTIC as the FLORIDA had lost
30 feet of bow accordioned into the ship and was severely
overloaded with all the people aboard. The women and children
were transferred first, then the rest of the First Class
passengers, then finally all of FLORIDA’s passengers. A riot
almost ensued because the Italian steerage passengers felt they
were being considered last. The transfer at sea of so many people
took eight hours. This left the FLORIDA to limp into port for
repairs while the BALTIC brought the passengers to New York minus
their jewels and luggage.
Most of the REPUBLIC’s crew as well as the passengers had been
put on the BALTIC. Captain Sealby and eight others remained with
the sinking “unsinkable” ship along with the wireless operator.
Jack Binns reported in an interview years later, “when daylight
broke the next morning, it revealed one of the greatest concourses
of ships ever seen on the seas. Everywhere, as far as the eye
could see were ships. Every liner and every cargo ship equipped
with wireless that happened to be within 300 mile radius of the
disaster, overhearing the exchange of messages between the BALTIC
and REPUBLIC had gathered around and stood by ready to be of
whatever assistance they could. It was a fine testimonial to the
value of wireless.”
The 15,000 ton 570 foot, REPUBLIC with a 70-foot beam was taken in
tow by the two Revenue Cutters, SENECA and GRESHAM bound for the
shallow water around Nantucket. They tried to tow at 2 knots. The
Anchor liner FURNESSIA had tied up to the stern to act as a rudder
for the disabled ship. At about 8 p.m. with their searchlights on
the tow, it was determined that the giant ship was rapidly
sinking!
The tow started at 10 a.m. Sunday morning and continued until 7
p.m. Sunday night. No actual progress was being made, as the
strong current they were bucking was the same speed as their
forward motion, so all four ships stood virtually still.
The FURNESSIA cast off their line as the stern of the REPUBLIC
was under water flooding the wireless room. At this time the
Captain ordered the rest of the crew off save one volunteer to
stay with him. The rest departed in the Captain’s gig.
“At this time the REPUBLIC was attached to the GRESHAM by a
steel hawser. As soon as we put off in the Captain’s gig we
pulled over to the GRESHAM, told the Captain of that ship the
condition of the REPUBLIC, and asked him to pay out a nine-inch
rope hawser and stand by, ready to cut the hawser as soon as he
got a signal from the bridge of the REPUBLIC that the ship was
about to go under. It had been previously agreed that Captain
Sealby was to flash a blue Coston light when the moment did
arrive.
“This, the Captain of the GRESHAM did. He stationed a man
with an ax over the hawser, with instructions to cut it the moment
he saw the blue light. We stayed off in the lifeboat waiting for
developments and holding ourselves ready to go to the rescue of
Sealby and Williams the moment the ship went down.
“Fortunately there were four or five other ships in the
vicinity watching the proceedings. Each one played his
searchlight on the REPUBLIC. By the aid of many searchlights the
two lone figures could be seen pacing to and fro on the uptilted
bridge. And then came the signal of the blue light. Then we saw
one of the men jump on to the rat-lines of the foremast, climb up
to the top of the mast and wait. The other man ran forward,
jumped up on the rail, and taking one last long look at the little
cabin on the bridge, turned and dove 40 feet into the sea.
“For one minute more the bow of the REPUBLIC trembled above
the waves and then sank.
“We rowed to the spot where it went down. The light of each
observing ship was trained upon the spot. Fortunately a quiet sea
was running at the time, but even so it was most difficult to see
very far from the open boat as the lights, intercepted by the
crests of the waves, threw darkened shadows over most of the
surrounding water.
“For 20 minutes we rowed around, earnestly but yet aimlessly,
for we did not know where to go. On all sides we saw glaring
searchlights, but nowhere could we discern any sign of life in the
sea. I don’t think any more sorrowful moment ever came to the
lives of the men in the open boat, not to mention those on the
nearby ships, for Captain Sealby and Second Officer Williams had
nobly upheld the tradition of the sea. But the length of time did
not diminish our hopes.
“Suddenly, to our right, from out of the murky blackness of
the waters of the sea, a revolver shot rang out. We pulled over
in that direction immediately, and found Captain Sealby hanging on
to a floating crate, so nearly exhausted that he had just
sufficient strength to pull the trigger of his revolver.
‘Williams over there’, he said, ‘get him.’ But we pulled the
Captain in and sure enough we found Williams too, clinging to a
hatch cover that had floated off the REPUBLIC as she went down.
At the time of this interview in the April 1924 issue of RADIO
BROADCAST, he was working as the Radio Editor of the New York
Tribune. This may explain the rather vivid account that he gave
of the event 15 years afterward.
Why did the Captain wait for the last possible moment to abandon
his ship? Perhaps it had to do with the chance a salvor might
have been able to save and claim the ship and cargo.
The sinking took place in 40 fathoms, 9 nautical miles W.S.W. of
the Nantucket light ship. The exact position given by the two
Revenue Cutters in their reports was about 8 miles apart. In 1981
the wreck was located about halfway in between the two positions.
The sunken remains were found six miles from the charted location.
At this point in this story the facts have been told, now
begins the conjecture. Captain Sealby surrendered his Captain’s
license, as was the custom. It was to be re-instated after a
court of inquiry had determined that he was blameless. However,
the required board of inquiry was never held, leaving the Captain
without a job. He went back to school and took up Maritime Law,
which he practiced in San Francisco until World War 1when he went
back to sea serving as a transport Captain with the Merchant
Marine.
It is believed that the ship was carrying a secret cargo of gold
destined for France, to be loaned to Czarist Russia to pay for the
War with Japan that they were engaged in at the time. The amount
is said to be 15 tons of gold bars and 3 million 1909 dollars in
$20 gold pieces in mint condition. In addition there was a large
some of money destined for relief of the victims of an earthquake
in Italy. There was also a $265,000 payroll aboard for the U.S.
Navy fleet that was in the Mediterranean on a good will tour
promoted by President Teddy Roosevelt.
All Government records of the cargo seem to be missing.
Captain Martin Bayerle formed a Dive Corporation to salvage the
gold and silver from the ship. It is believed that there may be as
much as $15 billion aboard! The loss of so much gold in 1909
could have caused a panic in the world markets and may have been
hushed up because of this.
There are many interesting web sites for those who wish to
read further. Http://rms-republic.com will give you the long
version. This web site is almost book length detailing the search
for more information and any official records. You can just type
SS REPUBLIC into your favorite browser and find these sites. The
site has a complete bibliography of the incident.

PRESIDENT IS HURT IN SHIP COLLISION; His Face
and Hands Cut by Glass from a Smashed Window. MAGNOLIA HIT BY
FREIGHTER His Tender Beached, Mr. Roosevelt on Another Vessel
Reaches the Cruiser West Virginia Safely. PRESIDENT IS HURT IN
SHIP COLLISION

Special to The New York Times.

October 28, 1905, Saturday

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 27, 1905. -- President
Roosevelt was slightly cut on the face and hands by broken glass
of a window in a collision which occurred at 11 o'clock last
night between the lighthouse tender Magnolia, on which he was
being conveyed from this city to the cruiser West Virginia on
his return to Washington, and the United Fruit Company's steamer
Esparta, inward bound.